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Political repression is the act of a state entity controlling a citizenry by force for political reasons, particularly for the purpose of restricting or preventing the citizenry's ability to take part in the political life of a society, thereby reducing their standing among their fellow citizens.[1][2] Repression tactics target the citizenry who are most likely to challenge the political ideology of the state in order for the government to remain in control.[3] In autocracies, the use of political repression is to prevent anti-regime support and mobilization.[4] It is often manifested through policies such as human rights violations, surveillance abuse, police brutality, imprisonment, involuntary settlement, stripping of citizen's rights, lustration, and violent action or terror such as the murder, summary executions, torture, forced disappearance, and other extrajudicial punishment of political activists, dissidents, or general population.[5] Direct repression tactics are those targeting specific actors who become aware of the harm done to them while covert tactics rely on the threat of citizenry being caught (wiretapping and monitoring).[6] The effectiveness of the tactics differ: covert repression tactics cause dissidents to use less detectable opposition tactics[7] while direct repression allows citizenry to witness and react to the repression.[8] Political repression can also be reinforced by means outside of written policy, such as by public and private media ownership and by self-censorship within the public.
Where political repression is sanctioned and organised by the state, it may constitute state terrorism, genocide, politicide or crimes against humanity. Systemic and violent political repression is a typical feature of dictatorships, totalitarian states and similar regimes.[9] While the use of political repression varies depending on the authoritarian regime, it is argued that repression is a defining feature and the foundation of autocracies by creating a power hierarchy between the leader and citizenry, contributing to the longevity of the regime.[10] Repressive activities have also been found within democratic contexts as well.[11][12] This can even include setting up situations where the death of the target of repression is the end result.[13] If political repression is not carried out with the approval of the state, a section of government may still be responsible. Some examples are the FBI COINTELPRO operations from 1956 to 1971 and the Palmer Raids from 1919-1920.[14][15][16]
In some states, "repression" can be an official term used in legislation or the names of government institutions. The Soviet Union had a legal policy of repression of political opposition defined in its penal code and Cuba under Fulgencio Batista had a secret police agency officially named the Bureau for the Repression of Communist Activities. According to Soviet and communist studies scholar Stephen Wheatcroft, in the case of the Soviet Union terms such as "the terror", "the purges" and "repression" are used to refer to the same events. He believes the most neutral terms are repression and mass killings, although in Russian the broad concept of repression is commonly held to include mass killings and is sometimes assumed to be synonymous with it, which is not the case in other languages.[17]
- ^ Davenport, Christian (2007). State Repression and the Domestic Democratic Peace New York: Cambridge University Press.
- ^ Davenport, Christian, Johnston, Hank and Mueller, Carol (2004). Repression and Mobilization Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
- ^ Hassan, Mai; Mattingly, Daniel; Nugent, Elizabeth R (November 30, 2021). "Political Control". Annual Review of Political Science.
- ^ Wang, Y. (2021). The Political Legacy of Violence During China's Cultural Revolution. British Journal of Political Science, 51(2), 463-487. doi:10.1017/S0007123419000255
- ^ Kittrie, Nicholas N. 1995. The War Against Authority: From the Crisis of Legitimacy to a New Social Contract. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.
- ^ Sullivan, Christopher M. Resistance is Mobile: Dynamics of Repression, Challenger Adaptationm and Surveillance in US 'Red Squad' and Black Nationalist Archives. Volume 55, Issue 2.
- ^ Sullivan, Christopher M. Resistance is Mobile: Dynamics of Repression, Challenger Adaptationm and Surveillance in US 'Red Squad' and Black Nationalist Archives. Volume 55, Issue 2.
- ^ Hassan, Mai; Mattingly, Daniel; Nugent, Elizabeth R (November 30, 2021). "Political Control". Annual Review of Political Science.
- ^ Serge, Victor, 1979, What Everyone Should Know About State Repression, London: New Park Publications.
- ^ Johannes Gerschewski (2013) The three pillars of stability: legitimation, repression, and co-optation in autocratic regimes, Democratization, 20:1, 13-38, DOI: 10.1080/13510347.2013.738860
- ^ Donner, Frank J. (1980). The Age of Surveillance: The Aims and Methods of America’s Political Intelligence System. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 0-394-40298-7
- ^ Donner, Frank J. (1990). Protectors of Privilege: Red Squads and Police Repression in Urban America. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-05951-4
- ^ Haas, Jeffrey. The Assassination of Fred Hampton: How the FBI and the Chicago Police Murdered a Black Panther. Chicago, Ill.: Lawrence Hill /Chicago Review, 2010.
- ^ COINTELPRO: The FBI's Covert Action Programs Against American Citizens, Final Report of the Senate Committee to Study Governmental Operations with respect to Intelligence Activities.
- ^ Cunningham, D. 2004. There’s something happening here: The New Left, the Klan, and FBI counterintelligence. Berkeley: Univ. of California.
- ^ "Justice Department Campaign Against the IWW, 1917-1920". depts.washington.edu. Retrieved 2023-04-13.
- ^ Wheatcroft, Stephen (1996). "The Scale and Nature of German and Soviet Repression and Mass Killings, 1930–45". Europe-Asia Studies. 48 (8): 1319–1353. doi:10.1080/09668139608412415.