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. 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. Political
… Read more repression is often accompanied by violence, which might be legal or illegal according to domestic law. Violence can both eliminate political opposition directly by killing opposition members, or indirectly by instilling
fear.
Political
conflict strongly increases the likelihood of state
repression. Civil uprisings are a strong predictor of repressive activity as states so often engage in repressive behaviors in times of civil
conflict. When their authority or legitimacy is threatened, regimes respond by overtly or covertly suppressing dissidents to eliminate the behavioral threat.
Repression suppresses dissident mobilization by reducing the capacity of challengers to
organize, yet it is also feasible that challengers can leverage state repressive behavior to spur mobilization among sympathizers by framing
repression as a new grievance against the state.
Big Brother is a fictional character and symbol in
George Orwell's dystopian 1949 novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. He is ostensibly the leader of Oceania, a totalitarian state wherein the ruling party, Ingsoc, wields total power "for its own sake" over the inhabitants. In the
society that Orwell describes, every citizen is under constant surveillance by the authorities, mainly by telescreens (with the exception of the Proles).
The people are constantly reminded of this by the slogan "
Big Brother is watching you": a maxim that is ubiquitously on display. In modern culture, the term "
Big Brother" has entered the lexicon as a synonym for abuse of
government power, particularly in respect to
… Read more civil liberties, often specifically related to mass surveillance.
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