Violence control

In the case of violence control , "violence" (ie power ) does not lie in one hand, but is distributed among various institutions in society. Control of violence requires separation of powers .

The mechanisms of control of one violence over the other and vice versa, aimed at balancing out, are then called violence control. The compensation is intended to prevent the excessive accumulation of power by a certain elite of a ruling system in order to channel the open conflicts that would result from it into an institutionalized process.

There are two types of violence control:

vertical control of violence

The electoral regime, i.e. the control of the ruled (citizens) over the rulers (politicians). (Note: The media play an important role here as mediators, which is why some also speak of the fourth estate)

horizontal control of violence

Control of powers ( institutions ) among one another, e.g. control of the judiciary ( judiciary ) vis-à-vis the government ( executive ). (Note: this side of the control of violence can be infiltrated by corruption without removing the actual institutions )

This system of " checks and balances " is a fundamental characteristic of every democracy and is laid down in the constitution of a state. In order to do theoretically justice to this complex system of a functioning democracy, the political science sub-discipline of democracy theory developed the concept of "embedded democracy". Defects in the control and division of powers are described in democratic theory with the concept of " defective democracy ".