Deep state

For other uses, see Deep state (disambiguation).

"State within a state" redirects here.

"imperium in imperio" redirects here.

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A deep state (from Turkish: derin devlet), also known as a state within a state, connotes a form of clandestine government made up of hidden or covert networks of power operating independently of a state's elected officials, in pursuit of their own agenda and goals. Government entities that might be part of a deep state include such organs of state as the armed forces or public authorities (intelligence agencies, police, secret police, administrative agencies, and government bureaucracy). The term itself is used variously to describe different phenomena. Deep state can refer to the actions of entrenched, career civil servants acting to further their own interests. In this case the intent of a deep state can include continuity of the state itself, job security for its members, enhanced power and authority, and the pursuit of ideological objectives.

In addition to promoting their own personal agenda, it can also be used to describe these state actors who operate in opposition to the agenda of elected officials, by obstructing, resisting, and subverting their policies, conditions and directives, or government-owned corporations or private companies that act independently of regulatory or governmental control.

However, deep state is most commonly used is to describe some form of conspiracy designed to thwart the will of the people. In this usage, deep state refers to an organized cabal of state actors who have their own political agenda and seek to promote it in opposition to the directives of the elected officials. Their actions are designed to resist or sabotage the policies pursued by the elected officials. This conspiratorial notion of a deep state bears a striking similarity to that of a shadow government with one major difference. A shadow government refers to an organization or group of non-state actors that are behind the scenes directing the actions or "pulling the strings" of the government officials. The notion of a deep state suggests that the actors are part of the government bureaucracy who are promoting their own power, or an ideologically driven agenda that differs from those of the office holders.

Historical Antecedents

The concept of the deep state has numerous antecedents. The idea of a power behind the political head of state has been around for a long time. Historically, the idea of a shadow government of prominent, wealthy individuals who control the government's actions for their own benefit stretch back to the Middle Ages with the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. During the Enlightenment the Illuminati became another group accused of being a shadow government. The Freemasons, a secret society, were also frequently the object of suspicion. In modern times, such groups as the Council on Foreign Relations, the Trilateral Commission and the Bilderberg Group have also been accused of operating as a shadow government.

The term itself seems to have derived from earlier notions of the state within a state. Baruch Spinoza uses it in his political writings. The Greek language κράτος ἐν κράτει, (kratos en kratei) was later adopted into Latin as imperium in imperio or status in statu). In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries political debate surrounding the separation of church and state often revolved around the perception that if left unchecked the Church might turn into a kind of State within a State, an illegitimate encroachment of the State's natural civil power.

In 19th century Italy a scandal that became known as the Propaganda Due erupted. Propaganda Due (better known as P2) was a Masonic lodge belonging to the Grand Orient of Italy (GOI). It was founded in 1877 with the name of Masonic Propaganda. While under the management by the entrepreneur Licio Gelli, it became embroiled in a banking controversy that nearly took down the Vatican Bank. It deviated from the statutes of the Freemasonry and was determined to be subversive towards the Italian legal order. The P2 was suspended by the GOI on July 2, 1976; subsequently, the parliamentary commission of inquiry into the P2 Masonic lodge under the presidency of Minister Tina Anselmi concluded the P2 case denouncing the lodge as a real "criminal organization" and "subversive". It was dissolved with a special law, the n. 17 of 25 January 1982.

An early modern example comes from the term (from Turkish: derin devlet). The term referred to the secret network established in 1923 by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk,

Cases

Soviet Union and post-Soviet Russia

The Soviet secret police have been frequently described by historians as a "state within a state.". According to Yevgenia Albats, most KGB leaders, including Lavrenty Beria, Yuri Andropov, and Vladimir Kryuchkov, always competed for power with the Communist Party and manipulated communist leaders.

According to Abdurakhman Avtorkhanov in 1991, "It is not true that the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party is a supreme power. The Political Bureau is only a shadow of the real supreme power that stands behind the chair of every Bureau member ... The real power thinks, acts and dictates for all of us. The name of the power is NKVD—MVD—MGB. The Stalin regime is based not on the Soviets, Party ideals, the power of the Political Bureau or Stalin's personality, but on the organization and the techniques of the Soviet political police where Stalin plays the role of the first policeman." However, he also noted that "To say that NKVD is ‘a state within the state’ means to belittle the importance of the NKVD because this question allows two forces – a normal state and a supernormal NKVD – whereas the only force is Chekism".

According to Ion Mihai Pacepa in 2006, "In the Soviet Union, the KGB was a state within a state. Now former KGB officers are running the state. They have custody of the country's 6,000 nuclear weapons, entrusted to the KGB in the 1950s, and they now also manage the strategic oil industry renationalized by Putin. The KGB successor, rechristened FSB, still has the right to electronically monitor the population, control political groups, search homes and businesses, infiltrate the federal government, create its own front enterprises, investigate cases, and run its own prison system. The Soviet Union had one KGB officer for every 428 citizens. Putin's Russia has one FSB-ist for every 297 citizens.

Chechnya

According to Julia Ioffe, the Russian Federal Subject of Chechnya, under leadership of Ramzan Kadyrov, has become a state within a state.

United Kingdom

The Civil Service has been called a "deep state" by senior politicians in the United Kingdom. Tony Blair said of the Civil Service, "You cannot underestimate how much they believe it's their job to actually run the country and to resist the changes put forward by people they dismiss as 'here today, gone tomorrow' politicians. They genuinely see themselves as the true guardians of the national interest, and think that their job is simply to wear you down and wait you out." The efforts of the Civil Service to frustrate elected politicians is the subject of the popular satiric BBC TV comedy, Yes Minister.

Venezuela

Further information: Cartel of the Suns

The Cartel of the Suns, a group of high-ranking officials within the Bolivarian Government of Venezuela, has been described as "a series of often competing networks buried deep within the Chavista regime". Following the Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela, the Bolivarian government initially embezzled until there were no more funds to embezzle, which required them to turn to drug trafficking. President Hugo Chávez made partnerships with the Colombian leftist militia Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and his successor Nicolás Maduro continued the process, promoting officials to high-ranking positions after they were accused of drug trafficking.

Italy

Africa

• Algeria's Department of Intelligence and Security
• Cameroon's Cameroon Development Corporation
• Egypt's Supreme Council of the Armed Forces

Central and South America

• Brazil's Army between the 1940s and 1980s
• Chilean's National Intelligence Directorate
• Mexico's Institutional Revolutionary Party which dominated politics in Mexico for much of the 20th century
• British Guiana's Booker-McConnell
• Guatemala's United Fruit Company
• Honduras's United Fruit Company
• PDVSA in Venezuela

Germany

• Weimar Republic's Reichswehr
• Nazi Germany's Schutzstaffel
• Nazi Germany's Wehrmacht
• East Germany's SAG Wismut

Turkey and the Ottoman Empire

• Ottoman Empire's Committee of Union and Progress
• Ottoman Empire's Janissaries
• Ottoman Empire's Karakol society
• Ottoman Empire's Young Turks
• Deep state in Turkey – Ergenekon, Counter-Guerrilla, Grey Wolves

Other places

• Imperial Japan's Army and the Kwantung Army
• Israel's Mossad
• Iran's IRGC
• Iran's SAVAK
• Jordan's PLO
• Kingdom of Serbia's Black Hand
• Lebanon's Hezbollah
• Lebanon's PLO
• Pakistan's Intelligence Community ISI, FIA, and/or IB
• United Kingdom's City of London Corporation
• NATO's Operation Gladio
• Thailand's Military-Monarchy Nexus

See also

• Cabal
• Civilian control of the military
• Counterintelligence state
• The Establishment
• Fifth column
• Fourth branch of government
• Illiberal democracy
• List of conspiracy theories
• Military coup
• Military dictatorship
• Monopoly on violence
• Political machine
• Power behind the throne
• Proto-state
• Puppet government
• Shadow government (conspiracy)
• Silovik
• Smoke-filled room

References

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