People's Republic of Tyranny: Difference between revisions

Note that "socialist republic" and "people's republic" are terms that communist countries use to describe themselves and communism.<ref>The ruling parties of those states claim(ed) their country was not truly communist, but ''in transition'' to the communism envisioned by Marx and Engels.</ref>

 

{{examples}}

* The Spanish comic ''[[Mortadelo Y Filemon]]'' had Tirania, land of peace. "Peaceful" meaning that if you try to start anything in such a place, the secret police [[Unperson|"disappear" you.]] [[Metaphorically True|That does preserve the peace...]]

 

* [[Discussed Trope|Discussed]] in ''[[Lord of War]]''.

{{quote|'''Yuri:''' Every faction in Africa calls themselves by these noble names - Liberation this, Patriotic that, Democratic Republic of something-or-other. I guess they can't own up to what they usually are: a federation of worse oppressors than the last bunch of oppressors. Often, the most barbaric atrocities occur when both combatants proclaim themselves freedom-fighters.}}

** The [[Starship Troopers (novel)|book]] version is simply called "The Terran Federation", and is similarly less fascistic, though they still require service for citizenship.

 

* Tom Kratmann specifically points this out in ''A Desert Called Peace'' when he writes a paragraph that goes something like this: People's Republic means dictatorship. Democratic Republic means oppressive and corrupt dictatorship. People's Democratic Republic means really oppressive and corrupt dictatorship with genocidal ambitions.

* ''[[Honor Harrington]]'': At the start of the series The People's Republic of Haven has a revolution where the trope is given full scope. It only gets better after a ''second'' revolution, where it drops the "People's". The trope is [[Discussed Trope|discussed]] by William Alexander, Lord of the Manticoran Exchequer, when he complains that public opinion in the Solarian League backs Haven because it is a republic while Manticore is a kingdom, and the people of the Solarian League assume that a republic must be a democracy while a kingdom must be autocratic. Later on, Havenite Secretary of War Thomas Theisman muses that he ''really wishes'' he could just have Arnold Giancola, the guy he ''knows'' is behind the resumption of the shooting war with Manticore, taken behind a shed and shot, but specifically notes they have to do everything by the book to show they are not the ''People's'' Republic of Haven anymore.

* In [[Robert Heinlein]]'s short story ''Coventry'' the most totalitarian nation in the Coventry is called "The Free State".

 

* ''[[Yes Minister]]'' lampshaded this, with "East Yemen" [[No Communities Were Harmed|playing the role of]] the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen, better known as South Yemen, which (much the way West Virginia is north of Virginia) was geographically east of the Yemen Arab Republic/"North Yemen".

* In the 2007 ''[[Flash Gordon (TV series)|Flash Gordon]]'', Ming's authoritarian state is called "The United Peoples of Mongo."

* In ''[[The Prisoner]]'', the Village is allegedly run by the Citizens' Council (which is always referred to by the administration as "''your'' Citizens' Council"), and the various Number Twos are always quick to loudly proclaim the Village's democratic nature. In reality, the Citizens' Council is a bunch of brainwashed mental vegetables who rubber-stamp whatever the current Number Two says and the post of Number Two itself is seen filled by a rigged election whose results are overturned as soon as they no longer serve the purposes of the Village's true rulers.

 

* The "era-specific title" of [[World Wrestling Entertainment|John Laurinaitis]]'s regime as general manager of both ''[[WWE Raw|Raw]]'' and ''[[WWE Smackdown|Smackdown]]'' is called "[[Blatant Lies|People Power]]".

 

* An episode of ''[[Think the Unthinkable]]'' featured the team at Unthinkable Solutions scheduled to meet with the Minister of Finance for the fictional African state of Nambitrea.

{{quote|'''Sophie:''' Formerly the Democratic Republic of Nambitrea, when it was Communist.

'''Sophie:''' [[The British Empire|And before that it was called New Devon, when it was completely owned by Lord Brinkworth.]] }}

 

* In the ''[[BattleTech]]'' universe, the five major states are called the Lyran Commonwealth, the Draconis Combine, the Federated Suns, the Capellan Confederation, and the Free Worlds League. At one point, the Federated Suns and Lyran Commonwealth combined to form the Federated Commonwealth, which later broke up into the Federated Suns and Lyran Alliance. The galaxy's [[Golden Age]] came about under the rule of the Star League, which was brought down by the machinations of the Rim Worlds Republic. ''All'' of these states are monarchies.

** But not all are exactly tyrannies. The Federated Suns and the Lyran Commonwealth, for example, are relatively civilized and mostly law-governed places, the power of the monarch is not absolute in practice, even if it is in theory (they are not figureheads, but neither realm is a despotism, either). The Draconis Combine, OTOH, most certainly ''is'' an iron militarism, with harsh regimentation and all the nasty appurtances of a police state. The Free World League barely holds together, and Capella is somewhere in between the civilized monarchies and Draconia in terms of its freedom and decency rating. Nor were the rulers of the collapsed Star League absolute monarchs, though they were most certainly monarchs. The applicability of the trope varies here.

* ''[[Eclipse Phase]]'' has the Jovian Republic...known to the entire outer system as the Jovian Junta, a repressive anti-transhuman state that views humanity as [[Science Is Bad|being far too immature to use Pandora gates or transhumanist technology safely]], and accuses virtually every other power bloc in the setting of [[Transhuman Treachery]].

 

* The Commonwealth in ''[[Red Faction|Red Faction II]]''. A commonwealth being essentially a republic, this one is nevertheless ruled by a dictator{{spoiler|, then by another after a coup}}. The player can remedy this.

* An in-joke revolving around ''[[Myst|Uru: Ages Beyond Myst]]'' is that DRC—the D'ni Restoration Council, the in-character face of the game company—secretly stands for the Democratic Republic of Channelwood.

* ''[[Fallout 3]]'' has The Republic Of Dave, which teeters on this trope. It's not too bad a place, but President Dave will have visitors shot if they don't adress him properly, legalised presidental bigamy so he could have another wife, teaches incorrect facts in school, and has convinced everyone he is the only viable candidate, so even though they hold regular elections, they only have one choice, unless the player passes a speech check to convince them otherwise. The place used to be the Kingdom of Ted before Dave ousted his father in a coup, believing that a republic is better. If his son, Bob, wins the election, he will turn the place into the Empire of Bob and become isolationist. (According to background material, this same process has gone on for several generations.)

 

* ''[[A Miracle of Science]]'' has the People's Republic of the Moon, which isn't actually all that bad; it's a drab grey place, but then it was Luna to start with. (It's Venus, with no such nominative pretensions, that you really have to be careful visiting.) Luna is a communist state, whose economy is described in comic as "managed" and "a mess", where consumer goods flow like water (in order to show how prosperous it is) while essentials are often in short supply - everyone has sunglasses, but few have shoes.

** [[Word of God|Jon Kilgannon]] commented that "it tells you something about the Lunar People's Republic that they put [[Secret Police|Beria]] on their money." He specified that Beria was an "all-around [[James Bond]] villain" despite being real.

* In ''[[Last Res0rt]]'', Celigo's full name is the People's Republic of Celigo (often shorted to P.R.O. Celigo). Supposedly it's not a bad place to live... [[Fantastic Racism|as long as you have wings, anwyay]].

 

* ''[[Imperium Nova]]'': The United Federation of People's Republics, in ''Gemini'', mostly a [[Fantasy Counterpart Culture]] of the [[Soviet Union]], but with North Korean-style [[Nepotism]] thrown in.

* During the Florida vote tabulation snafu between [[George W. Bush]] and [[Al Gore]], ''[[The Onion]]'' ran an article where [[Bill Clinton]] took control of the United States and renamed it the "Holy United Imperial Americlintonian Demopublic."

 

* ''[[Transformers Generation 1]]'' has the Socialist Democratic Federated Republic of Carbombya, led by Supreme Military Commander, President-for-Life, and King of Kings Abdul Fakkadi. The horribly offensive stereotyping provoked [[Casey Kasem]] to quit the show.

** That's right. It was a joke so awful and racist that it [[Ruined FOREVER|broke Teletraan 1.]]

 

* Many [[wikipedia:Communist states|Communist]] and [[wikipedia:Single-party state|single-party]] states use this trope.

** Often the words "Justice" and "Freedom" are added to the titles of the political party and government agencies.

* An Argentine military coup that deposed President Juan Perón was named "Revolución Libertadora" (in Spanish, "Liberating revolution"). Besides being a military coup, unlike Perón—who was chosen by the people in free elections—the "Libertadora" banned the very mention of Perón's name (as well as eventually committing a large number of war crimes). Yes, exactly as it sounds.

 

* In the United States (and sometimes other English-speaking countries as well), liberal leaning areas -- ''especially'' college towns -- that are surrounded by conservative areas will be given the "People's Republic" label as a way of conservatives mocking liberals. In turn, said liberal areas [[Appropriated Appellation|will often start calling themselves that]]:

** Cambridge, Massachusetts uses the name "People's Republic of Cambridge" in jest, sometimes in official documents. It is far from the only Massachusetts example, as Amherst [[It Is Pronounced "Tro-PAY"|(note the silent 'h')]] is another wildly liberal victim/perpetrator (naturally, which one it is depends on who's saying it and how it's being used) of this trope.

* [http://prsc.org.uk The People's Republic of Stokes Croft] in the arts quarter of Bristol, England. Opposition to the opening of a supermarket in the area led to well-publicised [http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/may/26/stokes-croft-protest-tesco-rioting?INTCMP=SRCH riots].

* For periods of around four weeks, a portion of North Carolina becomes the People's Republic of Pineland, a dictatorship fighting against a rebellion that serves as a training exercise for Green Berets, whose main mission is to train indigenous forces. Their legal tender looks suspiciously like Monopoly money.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:You Would Not Want to Live In Dex]]

[[Category:Help Help This Index Is Being Repressed]]

[[Category:Politics Tropes]]

[[Category:Subverted Innocence Tropes]]