Notes on gangster states

Why legitimacy matters when the state has a monopoly on coercive and lethal force.

One priority for a modern state - perhaps the highest priority - is for it to keep its citizens safe from harm.

And within that priority is the need for the state to to keep its citizens safe from harm inflicted by the state itself.

A modern state has - or should have - a monopoly on legitimate coercive and indeed lethal force.

By “legitimate” is meant that the force used will have a lawful basis, will be used in accordance with legal rules, is sanctioned ultimately by someone capable of being publicly accountable, and is capable of review by an independent court.

So what happens when this breaks down?

What happens when the it is the state that is inflicting injury and death on its own citizens - or on people in its care?

And what happens when that coercive and lethal force does not appear to have a legal basis and/or is not in accordance with legal rules and/or is sanctioned by those with no accountability and/or is not capable of independent judicial review?

That is: what happens, for any or all these reasons, the use of coercive and lethal use of force does not seem to have any legitimacy?

What happens when the only justification for the use of coercive and lethal use of force - or excuse or pretext - is that might is right?

Well, among other things, you have a fundamental failure in the functioning of a modern state.

For the key word here is “legitimacy”.

Anybody can (seek to) use coercive and lethal force - and many will get away with it.

And if that is possible, then you have a gangster state, an outlaw state, a pirate state - where anything goes by those who can use coercive and lethal force and be protected from any legal or political consequences.

Some may like the idea of such a state - some may read science fiction or fantasy fiction where there are cities or entire societies where might is right.

Or when may look at various places - now and throughout history - where any sense of a legitimate central order has broken down. And what one will often see are massacres and gangsterism.

That is why there is a quid pro quo - the state gets to have a monopoly on the use of coercive and lethal force, in return for that coercive and lethal force being used legitimately.

That is that the force used will have a lawful basis, will be used in accordance with legal rules, is sanctioned ultimately by someone capable of being publicly accountable, and is capable of review by an independent court.

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Now looking at the United States, there appears to be the free use of coercive and lethal force by the federal agency ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement).

Last week Renee Nicole Good was killed by ICE in circumstances that seem to have been murder: a state execution of an innocent person on the streets for no good reason.

At the start of that day three children had a mother and at the end of that day they did not, just because an ICE agent decided to shoot their mother three times in the face.

I have written about this over at Prospect in an article entitled Death in Minnesota - please click here to read it.

Fatalities happen, police shootings of innocent people happen - but what was especially striking about this killing was the response of the federal government and its supporters.

For want of a better word: they celebrated the killing.

The woman somehow deserved it because she was dubbed “domestic terrorist”.

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Now turning back to the general issue of legitimacy, we can see that this use of lethal (and not only coercive) force appears from from any of those elements which can (in limited circumstances) render it legitimate.

The extra-judicial execution of Renee Nicole Good seems not to have a legal basis, it was not in accordance with legal rules, was sanctioned (even implicitly) by those who seek to evade accountability, and it may not be capable of review by an independent court.

The federal state is resisting working with the local police.

It looks as if the state is confident it can get away with it.

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But.

The cost of the state getting away with it will be further diminution of the legitimacy of the state having a monopoly of coercive and legal power.

Yes, as a matter of realpolitik, the state can seemingly do as it wishes.

Yet in the medium term, legitimacy matters.

A society is not easy to govern unless there is at least acceptance of the powers of the police and the military: sheer repression is expensive and often unsustainable.

That is why the wise tyrant hides behind a veneer of legalism and constitutionality.

And that is also why gangster states rarely last very long.