police state

/pəˌlis ˌsteɪt/

Other forms: police states

A government that controls the activities of its citizens using a police force or military is a police state. Before World War II, there was a rise of police states in Europe.

You could also call a police state a "dictatorship" or a "totalitarian government." The first use of police state can be traced back to Austria in the 1850s, when order was kept by a national police force. The definition varies depending on the values of the person using the term — some think if a government uses electronic or digital surveillance it's a police state, while others believe it takes the loss of more freedoms to make a police state.

Definitions of police state

1. noun

   a country that maintains repressive control over the people by means of police (especially secret police)
   type of:

   Caesarism, Stalinism, absolutism, authoritarianism, despotism, dictatorship, monocracy, one-man rule, shogunate, totalitarianism, tyranny

   a form of government in which the ruler is an absolute dictator (not restricted by a constitution or laws or opposition etc.)