night watchman state
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See also: night-watchman state
English
Alternative forms
Etymology
Calque of German Nachtwächterstaat, which was coined by German socialist Ferdinand Lassalle in an 1862 speech in Berlin. He used this term to criticize the idea of a state with minimal government, comparing it to a night watchman whose sole duty was preventing theft.
Noun
night watchman state (plural night watchman states)
- (political philosophy) Government that is limited to a bare minimum of functions, usually just military, police, and courts.
- Synonyms: minarchy, minimal state
- Coordinate terms: nanny state, welfare state, police state
- 2011 February 1, Tristram Hunt, “The coalition holds Britain's cultural fabric in contempt”, in The Guardian:
- For these neoLiberal Democrats of the Orange Book school remain determined to junk social liberalism for economic liberalism. Their guiding light is the Gladstonian ideal of a low tax, laissez-faire, “night-watchman state”.
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