Political Repression Definition

In a journal article titled Political Repression: Iron Fists, Velvet Gloves, and Diffuse Control, UCSB professor Jennifer Earl summarizes the current academic literature on political repression and periodically notes areas in which further research ought to be conducted. Before proceeding, Earl addresses a crucial question with wide ramifications for the the rest of the research, namely how to define “repression.” On the one hand, repression could be narrowly construed to mean only direct violence against protestors, or could be loosely construed to mean any kind of law enforcement. The former would perhaps underdress the true scope of the issue, while the latter would risk dramatizing the extent to which governments repress the people and
For example, there has been little discussion of private repression and similarly little about covert repression, which includes things like spying and surveillance. With all of this in mind, most of the research on repression focuses on two main questions: what are the causes of repression, and what are its effects? Repression takes place in varying degrees depending on the openness of a society (ranging from democratic republics to dictatorships), and is usually carried out through formal institutions such as the FBI or KGB to support the political aims of the state (273). On the second question, repression has been seen to have a deterrent effect on unwanted activity, but interestingly repression can lead to escalation and actually embolden those who are protesting. When repression takes the form of “escalated force” instead of “negotiated management” this is often the case (269). Over time, police departments in the Western world have vacillated between these two approaches, at times cracking down on protests with force and at others allowing them to proceed peacefully. Regrettably, little research has been done on the causes and consequences of repression across the globe. Only closer to home where it often takes place through more discrete channels such as spying or even, as some argue, mass incarceration. The issue of repression is closely tied in with the study of a number of other disciplines, and understanding in that context will better allow us to improve “sociology’s understanding of political and cultural change”