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"The art of the compromise
Hold your nose and close your eyes
We want our leaders to save the day
But we don’t get a say in what they trade away"
— "The Room Where It Happens," Hamilton

Tropes that are related to governmental systems, political ideologies, policies, and practices, and the way they shape historical/current events in both fiction and the real world.

Political facts and useful notes can be found on the Useful Notes index.

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    General politics tropes 
Useful Notes:

Related indexes

    Mass media politics 
  • Anti-Police Song: A song specifically protesting against corruption or violence by law enforcement.
  • Backed by the Pentagon: The entertainment industry maintains business connections with the national government; for example, Hollywood asking the US Department of Defense to loan military equipment for use in films.
  • Banned in China: A work of media has been (legally) prohibited from being released or distributed in a specific country.
  • Book Burning: The physical desecration of literature, which may be done as an act of politically motivated censorship (or protest).
  • Convicted by Public Opinion: When the public pre-assumes someone's guilt based on their feelings rather than facts.
  • Distanced from Current Events: When media gets censored in order to avoid accidentally drawing parallels to controversial news stories from real life.
  • Fox News Liberal: A token liberal (or conservative) on a conservative (or liberal) talk show or news network.
  • Hail to the Thief: A satirical song which mocks a particular politician.
  • Media Watchdog: Activist groups who want to protest or censor objectionable content in the media, perhaps for ideological reasons.
  • Movement Mascot: When a fictional character becomes political.
  • No Swastikas: Media depicting Nazi Germany avoids any display of swastikas.
  • Nuclear Weapons Taboo: Media skirts around the depiction or discussion of nukes.
  • Political Correctness Is Evil: The belief that society has gone to pot because too many people are overly concerned about being politically correct.
  • Political Overcorrectness: Exaggerated depictions of political correctness Played for Laughs.
  • Propaganda Machine: When mass media is used as an instrument of state propaganda that promotes the government's policies.
  • Propaganda Piece: A work of media or entertainment which was intended to politically indoctrinate its viewers.
  • Protest Song: A song opposing some sort of government policy or political ideology.
  • Strawman News Media: Journalism is portrayed as a corrupt industry which only exists to brainwash people with biased propaganda serving corporate/political interests.
  • Wartime Cartoon: Animated films as pro-war propaganda, meant to instill viewers with militaristic and nationalistic sentiments against the enemy.
  • What Do You Mean, It's Not Political?: Audiences see political undertones in works where none were intended.
  • Written by the Winners: Political news and historical accounts are biased in favor of whoever came out victorious and stayed in power.

    Political officials and citizens 

    Political concepts and philosophies 
  • All Issues Are Political Issues: Some people view all problems through their political lens.
  • Anarchy Is Chaos: The belief that having no government leads to utter chaos and lawlessness. Also related to the stereotype that anarchists hold no political goals beyond abolishing statism, and just want to live without any laws or rules.
  • Animal Wrongs Group: Animal rights activism is often portrayed as just a useless movement for whiny vegans who think animals deserve to be treated equally to humans, if not outright valuing animals over people.
  • Ban on Politics: Talking about politics in a non-political forum is considered bad form.
  • Bomb-Throwing Anarchists: Militant anarchists who believe that violent revolution is the best way to overthrow governments, corporations, and the mainstream social order.
  • Chummy Commies: Communists who are not so bad.
  • Commie Nazis: The evil bastard offspring of Dirty Communists and Those Wacky Nazis.
  • Democracy Is Bad: Democratic governments are depicted as being terribly corrupt and incompetent, to the point that autocracy or anarchy is preferable.
  • Democracy Is Flawed: While democratic governments are overly bureaucratic and inefficient, they're still better than any other alternatives.
  • Divide and Conquer: Keeping groups in disharmony to prevent them from allying.
  • Elective Monarchy: A system of government in which kings are voted into power instead of inheriting it by blood relations.
  • Enlightened Self-Interest: The belief that helping others will create benefits for oneself.
  • Failed State: A country unable to provide for its citizens.
  • Fascist, but Inefficient: Autocratic governments may promise to bring order and stability, but they ultimately fail to even accomplish that.
  • Godwin's Law: A (fallacious) accusation that one's political opponents are literal fascists, Nazis, or even Hitler reincarnated.
  • Golden Mean Fallacy: Coming to the conclusion that the right answer is moderation between the two extremes, even if that doesn't actually make much sense.
  • The Golden Rule: The principle of treating others the way you would want to be treated.
  • Good Capitalism, Evil Capitalism: A work includes positive and negative examples of capitalistic practices.
  • Hates Rich People: Extreme hatred for wealthy people for various reasons.
  • Hereditary Republic: A system of government in which presidents inherit their power from relatives instead of being chosen by voters.
  • Hobbes Was Right: The belief that humans are inherently base and cruel, and that they require tyranny to be kept in line.
  • The Horseshoe Effect: When two political extremes aren't that different from each other.
  • Liberty Over Prosperity: A character chooses to be free and impoverished rather than to be prosperous but controlled.
  • The Magocracy: A government run by magicians and mages.
  • Majored in Western Hypocrisy: A character who is educated in the West comes to believe it to be evil (or at least severely flawed).
  • Might Makes Right: Using superior military strength to determine what is moral and good.
  • A Nazi by Any Other Name: A not-so-subtle expy or parody of Nazis and their ideology.
  • The Necrocracy: A government run by The Undead.
  • Opinion Override: Someone complains about something that they see as offensive to a particular group that they are not a part of, when actual members of that group make it clear that they don't care.
  • Patriotic Fervor: Nationalistic pride for one's country.
  • Privately Owned Society: A place run by private corporations instead of public governments, where capitalist economics are prioritized over rule of law.
  • The Republic: Governments run by appointed/elected officials (presidents, prime ministers) instead of hereditary aristocrats (monarchs).
  • Red and Black Totalitarianism: A repressive regime uses red and black colors.
  • Red Scare: Fear and paranoia over radical socialists (like Dirty Communists or Bomb-Throwing Anarchists), or anyone alleged to be such, supposedly being great menaces to society.
  • Repressive, but Efficient: An autocratic government succeeds at achieving its policy goals due to being able to circumvent the factional/partisan squabbling and legislative chaos associated with democracy.
  • The Right of a Superior Species: A more-advanced species justifies its mistreatment of a lower species.
  • Robot Republic: A government run by robots.
  • Sliding Scale of Libertarianism and Authoritarianism: Personal freedom vs state control.
  • Soapbox Sadie: A super-preachy activist girl.
  • The Social Darwinist: Survival of the fittest.
  • Straw Character: A character who mainly serves as a political strawman (a one-dimensional caricature of any beliefs that the author disagrees with).
  • Straw Civilian: A civilian (usually a government official/employee) who is portrayed as an obstacle to the military or war effort.
  • Straw Feminist: The stereotype that feminists are misandrists who use fighting for equal rights as an excuse to demean, insult, harm, and discriminate against men.
  • Straw Hypocrite: When the political strawman fails to practice whatever they preach, with hints that their beliefs and goals are just an insincere facade for more selfish motives.
  • Strawman U: Unflattering stereotypes of (usually left-wing) political activism amongst college/university students or their professors.
  • Straw Misogynist: The stereotype of sexist men who strongly believe that women don't deserve equal human rights and should just Stay in the Kitchen.
  • Straw Vegetarian: Unflattering stereotypes of vegans and other vegetarians who refuse to consume meat for ideological reasons.
  • The Suffragette: Feminist activists who fought for the right of female citizens to vote in elections or run for political offices.
  • The Theocracy: A government run by priests and clergymen through religious laws, as opposed to a secular state.
  • Those Wacky Nazis: (Neo-)Nazis and similar fascist movements.
  • Too Good for Exploiters: A system is exploited, and those who exploit it seek to keep it in place so they can keep exploiting it.
  • Why We Are Bummed Communism Fell: Missing the benefits of Communism and/or the Cold War.
  • Windmill Crusader: Someone is obsessed with taking down a threat that doesn't really exist.
  • Windmill Political: Someone whose ideology is based around nonexistent issues or problems.
  • You Cannot Kill An Idea: Political ideologies can survive even the most brutally violent forms of political repression, and even outlast its original proponents.

    Political actions and policies 
  • There Should Be a Law: A character wants something to be made illegal because they don't like it.
  • Think of the Children!: Emotional appeals on how a policy may affect our precious youths.
  • Treachery Cover Up: It's better if the public doesn't learn of someone's acts of betrayal.
  • Villainous Gentrification: The act of building new apartments in place of older ones (usually in poorer locations) is done by people with malicious intent, or at least portrayed as an act of aggression against prior residents.
  • Warhawk: Someone who's really eager to start bombing their country's (real or imagined) enemies.
  • With Us or Against Us: You're either part of our sociopolitical group, or you're our sociopolitical enemy. No exceptions!

    Democratic and bureaucratic politics 

    Rebellious and repressive politics 
  • 2 + Torture = 5: Torturing prisoners into accepting a government-mandated idea that is factually (often obviously) false.
  • Anarcho-Tyranny: A corrupt government or tyrannical regime creates a state of perpetual lawlessness, so that everyone is too busy fighting each other to worry about them, which is criminal neglect on a nationwide scale.
  • Assassination Attempt: Government officials and political activists of all kinds tend to attract enemies who want them to be killed, sometimes successfully.
  • Banana Republic: An expy of a Latin American country, usually portrayed as being poor and weak due to being ruled by a cruel and/or incompetent leader.
  • Big Brother Is Employing You: A character, up to and including the protagonist, works for the dystopian government.
  • Big Brother Is Watching: Mass surveillance of the general population by state security forces.
  • Bigot with a Badge: A racist law enforcement officer.
  • Bread and Circuses: When media, entertainment, and other distractions are used to keep the masses too content and stupid to care about whatever shady shit that the government or corporations are up to.
  • Broken-System Dogmatist: Someone defends a broken sociopolitical system, even if it's clear it's beyond saving.
  • Burning the Flag: The desecration of a national flag (whether of one's own country or a foreign one), often as a statement of protest.
  • Church Police: The Theocracy has an agency which enforces religious laws, cracking down on infidels and sinners.
  • Civil War: An internal military conflict in which the government and their security forces fight with rebel factions that want to overthrow them.
  • Les Collaborateurs: Traitors who actively serve a foreign military occupation in their own country.
  • Conscription: When the state legally forces people to join the military rather than only recruiting volunteers. Can become a political controversy when draft-dodgers and anti-war activists oppose the practice.
  • The Coup: The current government leader(s) get overthrown and replaced by some of their own subordinates.
  • Crushing the Populace: A ruler of a newly-conquered land proceeds to oppress much of its population.
  • Culture Police: Law enforcement agencies that enforce cultural policies, such as by censoring any media the government deems unacceptable.
  • Day of the Jackboot: A democracy is successfully taken over by evil dictators.
  • The Dictatorship: An autocratic government where every decision is made by one person. Distinct from an absolute monarchy due to using a quasi-republican government system.
  • Draft Dodging: Someone refuses to follow draft laws which compel them to enlist in the military, whether out of moral/political/religious beliefs or for more personal (self-serving) reasons.
  • Dystopian Edict: A dystopian nation is built around one very specific, very absurd law.
  • Eat the Rich: Blame is placed on the wealthy upper-class elites for causing all of society's problems, and therefore they all need to be punished.
  • Eco-Terrorist: An individual or organization commits violent acts in the name of protecting nature/the environment.
  • Emergency Authority: A public official is given more power than they normally have in order to deal with an emergency situation, which often ends badly.
  • Fantastic Terrorists: Terrorists in a Speculative Fiction setting.
  • Fascist, but Inefficient: A repressive government is both cruel and ineffective.
  • Fascists Bedtime: Curfews. Never leave home with them.
  • Final Solution: Genocide, or the systematic mass murder of entire ethnic/religious communities that are strongly despised and persecuted by the state.
  • Full-Circle Revolution: When an old tyrannical government gets replaced by another new government that is just as (if not even more) repressive as the old regime.
  • Government-Exploited Crisis: The government causes or exploits a disaster to further its own goals.
  • Happiness Is Mandatory: Pretend that you're completely okay with your mediocre living conditions or else...
  • I Own This Town: A rich and powerful member of the elite who runs a city like their own personal fiefdom.
  • Icon of Rebellion: A symbol for resistance against the establishment.
  • Illegal Religion: The government bans an entire religious sect, and punishes anyone caught practicing it.
  • Kangaroo Court: An authoritarian sham court.
  • Kill the Poor: When the "war on poverty" becomes a horrifyingly literal campaign to persecute the poorest of lower-class folks.
  • The Kingslayer: Someone who has committed regicide (the murder of a monarch).
  • Legalized Evil: Acts of evil and malevolence against another are permitted and unpunished under the law of the land.
  • Mandatory Motherhood: Everyone must make babies or else.
  • Military Coup: When military commanders seize power from (usually civilian) government leaders.
  • Newspeak: Politically charged alterations of language, especially in the context of certain groups trying to manipulate people's speech and thoughts through propaganda.
  • Oppressive States of America: A dystopian version of the United States of America.
  • People's Republic of Tyranny: The common tendency for dictatorships to (poorly) masquerade as democracies.
  • Persecuted Intellectuals: Smart people are discriminated against.
  • Police Brutality: It can become politically charged when law enforcement officers engage in excessively violent force against political protesters and anti-government dissidents. Also, the whole phenomenon of police violence can inspire protests and activism against this specifically.
  • Police State: Totalitarian governments make sure to monitor and control as much of their citizens' lives as possible.
  • Population Control: The government tries to keep their country's population from growing out of control, usually through coercive methods (like forced abortions and sterilizations).
  • The Purge: When the government (or another political faction) cracks down on all (real or imagined, usually internal) dissent and opposition; often through mass arrests and detention of these alleged enemies, or even by executions and massacres.
  • Reign of Terror: When a rebel movement trying to overthrow the old regime eliminate all their loyalists.
  • Renegade Splinter Faction: A faction splits off from its parent group due to ideological differences, and is often considered dangerous (or at least more dangerous than the parent group).
  • Repressive, but Efficient: A dictatorship is cruel, but efficient.
  • La Résistance: Underground rebel forces who oppose the current regime in power.
  • Revolutionaries Who Don't Do Anything: Activists who talk a great deal about overthrowing the government or resisting political corruption, but don't actually try to even make any meaningful changes to the status quo.
  • The Revolution Will Not Be Bureaucratized: A regime was just overthrown, Now What?
  • The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized: Rebels and revolutionaries are not too merciful towards pro-government loyalists (or even their own allies who start getting the wrong ideas).
  • The Revolution Will Not Be Vilified: A rebel revolutionary force are the good guys.
  • Revolving Door Revolution: A politically unstable country keeps getting new governments that seem to rise and fall with the changing seasons.
  • Right-Wing Militia Fanatic: Extremist conservatives who really like their guns and violence, and really dislike the government.
  • Secret Police: A covert intelligence/law-enforcement agency that is responsible for monitoring and suppressing political dissent.
  • Sentenced Without Trial: Sentencing someone without giving them a trial.
  • Shadow Government: Democracy is a lie. These people are the real authority behind everything.
  • Slave Liberation: Freeing people who live in forced servitude, whether by peaceful or violent means.
  • Slavery Is a Special Kind of Evil: Slavery is such an awful violation of human rights, that it has inspired political movements to legally abolish this system.
  • Staged Populist Uprising: A popular rebellion that is actually being led by an elite or outsider who isn't loyal to the people's cause.
  • The Stateless: Someone who is not a citizen or national of any sovereign nation-state. Sometimes this can be done voluntarily, but otherwise it happens because no country is willing to legally recognize them (or the government of their homeland may have even forcibly stripped them of their former citizenship/nationality).
  • State Sec: A paramilitary police force designed for terrorizing all enemies of the state.
  • Super Registration Act: When the state attempts to legally regulate superhuman beings with special powers, or at least costumed vigilantes and costumed criminals.
  • Taught to Hate: When society teaches hatred of an outgroup to its members.
  • Thousand-Year Reign: A faction declares it will rule for a very, very long time.
  • Thoughtcrime: When it's not enough for a totalitarian government to just censor whatever you try to say; they need to ensure you're unable to even feel any disagreement with them.
  • Tyrant Takes the Helm: A repressive autocrat replaces a former Reasonable Authority Figure.
  • Velvet Revolution: A revolution that is fought with little to no violence (at least, from the rebels).
  • Voice of the Resistance: All rebel propaganda requires a good spokesperson to represent them.
  • We Are Everywhere: A member of a group is taken out, but they assert that other members of that group are so pervasive in society.
  • We ARE Struggling Together: Factions that are nominally allied find it hard to focus on their common enemy because they're too preoccupied with fighting each other.
  • Would Be Rude to Say "Genocide": The denial, whitewashing, or justification of a genocide.
  • Your Terrorists Are Our Freedom Fighters: Depending on one's personal bias, political militants can be either villains or heroes in their eyes.

    International and interstellar politics 
  • Agent Provocateur: An individual who pretends to be on the other side and who tries to provoke the other side.
  • All Nations Are Superpowers: Every country is far more powerful than they are in real life.
  • The Alliance: When two or more sovereign countries agree to team up together for common diplomatic/economic/military interests.
  • Altar Diplomacy: Arranged Marriage between members of different royal/noble families to build a political alliance tying them together.
  • America Takes Over the World: The whole world is led by the USA.
  • Armies Are Evil: A work portrays formal military as being a violent group of warmongers.
  • Balance of Power: An international status quo between states of relatively-even power and influence, with several smaller states allying themselves with one or the other in order to preserve the balance and, ultimately, peace.
  • Binding Ancient Treaty: A formal agreement from an era long gone is still applicable in the present day.
  • China Takes Over the World: The whole world is led by China.
  • Cultural Posturing: A character invokes their culture as being superior to another culture.
  • Diplomatic Back Channel: Unofficial means for governments to talk.
  • Diplomatic Cover Spy: When employees of an embassy or consulate hide behind the cover of diplomatic immunity to engage in espionage.
  • Diplomatic Impunity: When foreign dignitaries abuse their legal immunity to the laws of the country they are staying in.
  • Diversionary Foreign Policy: The deliberate invasion of a foreign party to quell domestic disputes.
  • The Empire: An aggressively expansionist and militaristic empire bent on conquering everyone else.
  • Enforced Cold War: An ongoing proxy conflict stays "cold", because turning it into an outright "hot" war would be more counterproductive to international interests.
  • Expanded States of America: The USA has expanded and incorporated other countries into itself.
  • False Flag Operation: Some entity (such as a government) stages some sort of violent act, and then frames their enemies for it as a pretext to declare a war against them. A very common component of countless conspiracy theories.
  • The Federation: A large (con)federacy/federation of various states which are partially or completely united together as one political force, sometimes even under a single centralized (federal) government.
  • Fictional Country: Many examples of fictitious nations are expies of real-world nations, or at least allegories for real-life international politics.
  • Fictional Geneva Conventions: The Laws and Customs of War are a bit different in fantasy/science-fiction settings.
  • Fictional United Nations: An international diplomatic organization that acts an expy for the real-life United Nations.
  • Galactic Superpower: A supremely powerful spacefaring nation.
  • Generic Federation, Named Empire: The Federation or The Alliance doesn't have much of a unique name, while The Empire does.
  • Good Republic, Evil Empire: A (federal) republic is portrayed as being good, while The Empire is a force of evil.
  • Government in Exile: The leaders of a former national government now live in another country (while still claiming sovereign authority which they no longer have).
  • The Great Wall: A city or nation builds a big border wall in order to keep invading armies, foreign migrants, and other unwanted outsiders out of their territory.
  • Gunboat Diplomacy: Efforts to create ties between two (or more) states are backed by military threat.
  • Hegemonic Empire: An Empire built through soft power (economics and culture) instead of hard power (military).
  • Hufflepuff House: A faction is important to the setting's politics, but largely irrelevant to the story.
  • Humans Are Diplomats: Humans constantly find themselves as the peacemaker between warring alien races.
  • International Showdown by Proxy: Sports (or some other mundane activity) representing conflict between two countries.
  • Japan Takes Over the World: The whole world is led by Japan.
  • Lensman Arms Race: Two nations trying to outdo one another in military might and weaponry end up creating fantastically powerful (and destructive) technology.
  • Libertarians IN SPACE!: Outer space is the ideal place for anti-statists to live out their fantasies of life without much governmental intervention.
  • Middle Eastern Coalition: Countries in North Africa or West Asia (whether real or fictional) unify to form a single, formally-governed Islamic nation.
  • Multiple Government Polity: A federalized entity of multiple distinct states united together.
  • Neutral in Name Only: A faction professes neutrality but in practice is heavily aligned with one side.
  • N.G.O. Superpower: A non-state actor that is so powerful and influential, that it can rival or challenge actual governments in geopolitical affairs.
  • No Mere Windmill: It turns out that the supposedly-imaginary threat that the Windmill Crusader was trying to warn everyone about, is actually quite real.
  • Non-Governmental Organization: A private group that engages in political activities, independently of any state apparatus.
  • Occupiers Out of Our Country: When nationalists yearn for the independence of their homeland from a ruling central government or foreign power that they despise.
  • Offending a Foreign Country: A character's actions or words offend a foreign country.
  • One World Order: A global government that completely rules over all of Earth (or another planet).
  • Patriot in Exile: A person loves their country despite being barred there.
  • Peace Conference: When warring factions sit down to negotiate peace treaties.
  • Political Hostage: The Empire wants to keep a vassal state in line, so they hold someone important to them as an indefinite "guest".
  • Post-Soviet Reunion: Russia reunites with post-Soviet states into an alliance, supranational union or superstate.
  • Pretext for War: A casus belli, or an excuse/justification for nations to declare war on one another.
  • Prisoner Exchange: When warring factions mutually agree to free their prisoners.
  • Proxy War: When two or more rival nations each support different factions of a military conflict, instead of directly fighting with each other in open warfare. For example, the Cold War.
  • Puppet State: A nominally independent country, which is actually a client/protectorate/satellite/tributary/vassal that is (in)directly controlled or dominated by another, more powerful nation.
  • The Queen Will Be Watching: A head of state, dignitary, or other important person catches a performance by a theatre group or attends a movie premiere.
  • The Quisling: A nation's puppet leader who is appointed by a foreign military occupation.
  • Realpolitik: The ruthlessly pragmatic conduct of political affairs for personal advantage, without any regard for moral principles.
  • Regime Change: The forceful overthrow and replacement of a national government, supported by a foreign power; usually done by covertly sponsoring a coup or revolution, and sometimes much more overtly through invasion and occupation by that foreign power.
  • Russia Takes Over the World: The whole world is led by Russia or the USSR.
  • Silly Reason for War: When a casus belli is overly contrived, petty, or downright illogical.
  • Space Cold War: A fictional proxy conflict which parallels the historical Cold War between the USA and the USSR.
  • State Visit: An official diplomatic visitation by a foreign national leader.
  • Take Over the World: A specific nation coming to total (or near-total) global domination as the sole superpower.
  • Ungovernable Galaxy: A whole galaxy is just way too big for one centralized state to effectively control.

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