nightwatchman Stateとは 意味・読み方・使い方

別の表記

• night-watchman state

語源

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.

名詞

night watchman state (plural night watchman states)

1. (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

   • 1992, Mark A. Graber, Transforming Free Speech: The Ambiguous Legacy of Civil Libertarianism, University of California Press, →ISBN, page 18:

     The doctrines of conservative liberalism were propounded by the late nineteenth century's leading intellectual proponents of the night watchman 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”.