Securitocracy (security + -ocracy)
A “securitocracy” (security + -ocracy) is a government where security runs the state; government officials are “securitocrats.” The term “securitocracy” has been cited in print since at least 2004 and “securitocrat” since at least 2007. “‘Securitocracy’ Great neologism from Convention on Modern Liberty” was cited on Twitter on February 28, 2009.
“Securitocracy” has been popularized by author and university professor Paul Gilroy.
Google Books
New Statesman
Volume 133, Issue 4720
2004
Pg. 27:
To be successful, an insurgent group must, by direct violence or through economic or political disruption, shatter the rival securitocracy’s consensus and force radical change. The war must become unsustainable.
Google Books
The Civil Contingencies Act 2004:
Risk, Resilience, and the Law in the United Kingdom
By Clive Walker and J. Broderick
New York. NY: Oxford University Press
2006
Pg. 94:
Thus, the legislation depicts the public primarily as passive consumers of contingency planning, in counterpoint to a ‘securitocracy’ who have to be trusted and obeyed.
Independent (Ireland)
The coldest warrior
At home, President Vladimir Putin has routed the opposition and seized control of Russia’s immense oil and gas wealth. Now, to the delight of his countrymen, he is turning his implacable attention to the West. What does this ex-KGB man want? And should we be afraid?
11 September 2007
(...)
Putin has pulled this off with cunning. Official publicity has been focused on the humiliation of greedy oligarchs, and popular opinion has responded positively. Yet, the “securitocrats” have turned out to be as rapacious as the oligarchs once were. They love money and hate those who prevent them from getting their hands on it.
Framing Muslims
Britain’s Securitocracy in the frame
Last Updated on Friday, 14 March 2008 11:39
Britain’s “securitocracy”, as Paul Gilroy has termed it, was discovered to have been secretly recording the MP for Tooting Sadiq Khan during his meetings with Babar Ahmed who was held in Milton Keynes under suspicion of running fund-raising web sites for the Taleban.
Twitter
Cory Doctorow
@doctorow
“Securitocracy” Great neologism from Convention on Modern Liberty #coml
12:16 PM - 28 Feb 09
Google Books
Darker Than Blue:
On the Moral Economies of Black Atlantic Culture
By Paul Gilroy
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press
2010
Pg. 156:
he provides a variety of conceptual tools that can be used to illuminate the larger crisis of multiculturalism— loudly declared dead after the endlessly fascinating treachery of Europe’s “homegrown” terrorists was discovered and used to create the new arrangement I have termed “securitocracy.”
Krekksoup
November 30, 2010
The well paid securitocracy have been out in force in the media, attacking wikileaks and repeating their well worn mantras.
These leaks will claim innocent lives, and will damage national security. They will encourage Islamic terrorism. Government secrecy is essential to keep us all safe. In fact, this action by Wikileaks is so cataclysmic, I shall be astonished if we are not all killed in our beds tonight.
Except that we heard exactly the same things months ago when Wikileaks released the Iraq war documents and then the Afghan war documents, and nobody has been able to point to a concrete example of any of these bloodurdling consequences.
— Craig Murray - Raise A Glass to Wikileaks
THe Middle East Beast
jeudi 16 juin 2011
THE PARTY PERSON. DEMOCRACY& SECURITOCRACY.
BY : KHAIRI JANBEK.
By training the voter in moderation, in philosophical acceptance of the limitations of government, and yet giving him/her a real feeling that their consent is needed and valuable, the political party in the state, performs a most educational function.
(...)
The politician thus talking to his’her chiefs, has an interest in frankness that is rare in autocratic (where the leader runs the state) or in securitocratic (where the security runs the state), where it is so much safer to tell the “boss’ only what he wants to hear; since the only person whom you need to please, and whose anger is important; is the dictator.
Google Books
Paul Gilroy
By Paul Williams
New York, NY: Routledge
2012
Pg. 44:
This is ‘securitocracy’ (DTB 156) whereby the decisions taken by the state are led by the defence of the homeland, and by implication, not democratic agreement.
Twitter
Ben Harris
@BenHarris_1
Securitocracy. Security theater. Whatever. “@robpitingolo: Why is this still closed? Arg. #bikedc @ The White House http://instagram.com/p/YaDsCxjvHk/ ”
6:10 AM - 22 Apr 13
Twitter
Karim Medhat Ennarah
@kennarah
Would you like your securitocracy plain,or with faux-democratic legitimacy & a bit of religious obsession? I’ll take the first one thank you
5:34 AM - 18 Jul 13
Twitter
Tavia Nyong’o
@Afrofabulist
Musical chairs at the top of NYPD, Dept. of Homeland Security and the University of California. Securitocracy now.
11:16 AM - 18 Jul 13