Overview

Democratic countries are relying more on authoritarian mechanisms to ensure social control. Those in power – the elite, the establishment or whatever label is used to describe them have one thing in common – their addiction to power. But that addiction can only be satiated with the compliance, deferrence or subjugation of those they want to control.

The task raises an awareness of the degree of social control in the lives of everyday Finnish citizens. This unit can be used as a prelude to Unit C4 which deals with the authoritarian approach of Helsinki City in the urban expansion eastwards and control of the Sipoo region.It can also be linked to the role of Groupthink in Unit B3 and C3 as well as the role of elites in E2 and their impact on social engineering and eugenics.

Materials Updates/News: 

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"Two-Tier Policing" has gained increasing publicity as a lexical insight into the current state of British policing. The point is that it has always been there. It was clearly evident in the 1984-85  Great Miners' Strike when the mining communities were stigmatised and the government of the day used every part of the security services to impose their mandate. (Griffith, J.A.G. 1977. The Politics of the Judiciary. Manchester University Press) It is happening today...the controls imposed on Freedom of Speech is one symptom of the increasing surveillance state.