Enemy of the state
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An enemy of the state is a person accused of certain crimes against the state, such as treason. Describing individuals in this way is sometimes a manifestation of political repression. For example, an authoritarian regime may purport to maintain national security by describing social or political dissidents as "enemies of the state". In other cases, the individual in question may have legitimately endangered the country and/or its population. For example, a double agent selling military or intelligence secrets could undermine a nation's security, and could therefore be considered an enemy not of just a person or entity within a state, but the state itself and all entities therein.
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Examples
- In the case of Ancient Rome, see "Proscription".
- In the Soviet Union during the period of Stalinism, the corresponding term was Enemy of the people.
- In fiction, see Emmanuel Goldstein.
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See also
Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Enemy of the state" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.
