People's Republic of Tyranny

At least there's still a little bit of overlap...^note For those interested, inside the intersection of the circles lies the Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe, the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, the People's Republic of Bangladesh, and the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal. In spite of having democratic elections, all of these states still suffer from problems like underdevelopment, corruption, and instability.

Sir Humphrey: East Yemen, isn't that a democracy?
Foreign Office Official: Its full name is the People's Democratic Republic of East Yemen.
Sir Humphrey: Ah, I see, so it's a communist dictatorship.

— Yes, Minister

When The Dictatorship tries to masquerade as The Republic or The Federation, it will try to adopt a democratic-sounding name in the process. But often it will go overboard, unable to restrain its own sense of self-importance.

While the true federations around it will usually possess simple, unassuming names — The Federation, The Republic, etc. — The Dictatorship will call itself the People's Republic. If they are really evil and oppressive, they'll call the nation the Democratic People's Republic. Indeed, the more words implying freedom the name of this "republic" sports, the more oppressive and generally un-free it is likely to actually be. It's the same reason that you shouldn't trust a business that calls itself something like Honest John's Dealership.

Some regimes will continue this Theme Naming to important buildings and organizations. As a corollary, be wary of any movement, government, or country that is casually referred to by its leaders as "Glorious".

The leaders might be cultivating themselves as a Villain with Good Publicity. Or they may genuinely believe that their society is genuinely democratic, even more so than (so-called) real democracies. Who knows; if they give everyone Bread and Circuses and are Repressive, but Efficient, people might not even care.

Alongside the bevy of democracy-sounding terms in such a country's name, they often have all of the rituals and trappings of a democratic government, such as a Supreme Court with a panel of judges in distinguished-looking robes, houses of legislature, a beautifully written constitution, and so on, except that all of these elements are powerless window-dressing.

Truth in Television: North Korea, for example, boasts the full package ("Democratic People's Republic of Korea"), and is one of the most repressive, totalitarian governments in the world. And the Trope name is based on People's Republic of China, a nation that - despite possessing glimmering cities - still possesses a totalitarian, and repressive, government.

A form of Newspeak. A subtrope of Super Happy Fun Trope of Doom. Definitely Names to Run Away from Really Fast — if you can. Given what these governments tend to have at their disposal, that's a big "if". It is often headed by The Generalissimo and/or Just the First Citizen. If they go so far as to have "elections", see Corrupt Politician. If it's the "Republic" part that's doubtful, see Hereditary Republic.

Compare Banana Republic, Day of the Jackboot, and A Nazi by Any Other Name. See also Double Speak and Suspiciously Specific Denial.

Ideologically, this regime will likely invoke Dirty Communists, One Nation Under Copyright, Those Wacky Nazis or basically any other republican ideology with its worse aspects played up, showing that you don't need an evil emperor for the worst aspects of The Empire to be replicated.

No relation to Of the People, which is about one group claiming everyone other than themselves to be "savage, inhuman barbarians".

---

Example subpages:

• Literature

Other examples:

Anime & Manga

• The World Government in One Piece is a variant: They make no claim to being democratic on a personal level, as hereditary rulers are accepted in most of the world. What they do promise is a federal system where leaders of all nations are represented as equals... yet the World Government has its own nobility that think themselves gods above human law (as well a basic decency and common sense). One World Noble even attempts to spontaneously enslave the princess of a newly-joined kingdom, only being stopped by another World Noble. To wit: the "Empty Throne", claimed to be a symbol that no one king sits above the others, is actually where Imu sits when watched by the few people aware they exist.

Comic Books

• El Sulfato Atómico, the first story of Spanish comic Mortadelo y Filemón had Tirania, a thinly veiled Nazi Germany that was supposed land of peace. "Peaceful" meaning that if you try to start anything in such a place, the secret police "disappear" you. That does preserve the peace...
• Monstress has the Federation of Man. Apparently it used to be an actual Federation, until the Cumaea witch-nuns took over; there's still an elected parliament officially running things, but it and the military are heavily influenced by the witches.
• Vagrant Queen has The Republic of Arriopa. In theory, it will become a burgeoning democracy. In practice, it's a military dictatorship, as the military is one of the few parts of the government that's still intact after the revolution.
• The Marvels shows the history of the fictional East Asian country "Siancong," as it starts off in French Indochina as "the Province of Sin-Cong" and then becomes the "Free State of Sin-Cong" to the "United Lands of Western Sin-Cong" and then, finally, to the "Socialist Republic of Siancong."

Films — Live-Action

• Bane turns Gotham City into this during The Dark Knight Rises, complete with Kangaroo Courts reminiscent of the French Revolution (this link is quite explicit, as Commissioner Gordon actually quotes A Tale of Two Cities at one point, and in an interview, we learn that Jonathan Nolan actually encouraged Christopher Nolan to read the book while he was writing the script). The wealthy are dragged out of their homes by angry mobs of armed criminals and summarily sentenced to death by a kangaroo court led by Jonathan Crane... a.k.a. the Scarecrow, who icily informs every defendant that "Your guilt has already been determined; this is merely a sentencing," where it turns out that both sentences are actually the same thing. Bane declares that this is a "liberation" and that he's a champion of "the people". The audience isn't fooled, as he already made his real nature painfully clear to Batman earlier in the film.
• Lord of War: Discussed when Yuri visits a group of "Freedom Fighters" in war-torn Sierra Leone to discuss an arms deal.
  Yuri: Every faction in Africa calls themselves by these noble names — Liberation this, Patriotic that, Democratic Republic of something-or-other. I guess they can't own up to what they usually are: a federation of worse oppressors than the last bunch of oppressors. Often, the most barbaric atrocities occur when both combatants proclaim themselves freedom fighters.
• Starship Troopers has the Federation, the full name of which according to background material is apparently the "United Citizens' Federation". Whatever else it is, it's clearly not a federation, since power resides in a highly centralized military bureaucracy; the effective head of the state appears to be the Sky Marshal. Only Citizens (which is a privileged status one has to earn; there are a few ways to do this, but military service is the easiest, as the news films proudly declare "SERVICE GUARANTEES CITIZENSHIP") are allowed to vote^note Whatever they're voting on is never addressed, since the Sky Marshal seems to be there by appointment, we don't know what legislature or ruling body the Federation actually has, and referenda do not appear to be a thing either., you need a license to breed (Citizens can obtain a license more easily), murderers are arrested, tried and executed the same day, the media is nothing but government-owned propaganda, and everyone is horribly desensitized to violence. That said, things don't seem too bad for non-Citizens, though we only see the wealthy ones.
• Star Wars:
  • The Galactic Republic in the timeframe between Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith. At the time Attack of the Clones takes place, Chancellor Palpatine's tenure should have ended two years ago, but he's stayed Chancellor beyond his second term because of the Separatist crisis — a crisis he himself engineered — and eventually, he gains emergency powers that prove to be the beginning of the end of democracy and its corruption. As the Clone Wars drag on, the Republic becomes a military dictatorship in all but name. Palpatine becomes the only voice of authority, and all worlds have a regiment of clone troopers for "protection". When he finally declares the formation of the First Galactic Empire, it's really just a formal change in name, while the corporations that caused the corruption and the Clone Wars get nationalized after their leaders are slaughtered.
  • The Confederacy of Independent Systems, in various materials, is established as having been founded on the ideal of breaking away from the corruption of the Old Republic and founding a freer society. In point of fact, it was founded by a group of Mega Corps that wanted to strike out on their own (and were even responsible for most of the corruption in the Republic) and two Sith Lords, one of whom was Chancellor Palpatine. Pretty much every story featuring them portrayed them as somewhere between a Banana Republic and the Legion of Doom. Given the name "Confederacy" is shared with a real historical breakaway of questionable-at-best morals^note Dooku himself is a dead ringer for Robert E. Lee, the points made may or may not be allusions to that particular phase of American history. A few Separatists do honestly believe they're fighting for freedom from the tyranny and corruption of the Republic, and some of the politicians think they are a democracy, but are unaware that it's really the Separatist Council and the Sith Lords that are calling the shots. Most of their forces, however, are from the mega-corps, or local political dissidents seizing on it as an opportunity to settle old scores with their regional rivals.
• Pier Paolo Pasolini set Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom, his adaptation of the Marquis de Sade's novel The 120 Days of Sodom, in the Italian Social Republic, a Nazi Germany puppet state created following the overthrow of Benito Mussolini. This was personal for Pasolini since his brother died in Salo.

Jokes

• A Finnish joke:
  Isi, isi, mikä on demokratia? (Dad, dad, what is democracy?)
  Se on kansanvalta. (It is people's power.)
  No mikä on kansandemokratia? (Okay, and what is people's democracy?)
  Se on väkivalta. (It is violence.) Finnish väkivalta (violence) can be directly translated as "mob power".

Live-Action TV

• 24: The Islamic Republic of Kamistan has the trope averted: they are a functioning democracy, albeit one plagued by instability (making them sort of a stand-in for Pakistan since Musharraf's resignation).
• 30 Rock: Jack refers to San Francisco as "The People's Gaypublic of Drugafornia".
• Angel: Possible Averted Trope. The Groosalugg is exiled from Pylea once it becomes (as Gunn described it), "some kind of people's republic". Although this is a reference to what often happens in the sort of failed revolution that often produces people's republics (i.e., old revolutionaries are branded traitors for disagreeing with the faction that wins), we never find out what Pylea is now like.
• Babylon 5 doesn't go as far as changing the name of the Earth Alliance, but under President Clark, it's this in all but name, complete with its own "Ministry of Peace" (even nicknamed in-universe MiniPax.)
• Blake's 7: The Terran Federation definitely qualifies as this, being ruled by a president and high council whose usual method of seizing power seems to be a military coup and with populations largely kept drugged and complicit. Ironically, the term "people's republic" is actually used by a revolution led by former Federation agent Anna Grant, who probably wouldn't have been much better than Servalan, or at least her predecessor, if the rebellion had succeeded.
• Doctor Who:
  • "Inferno" sees the Doctor accidentally wind up in a parallel universe due to him going "sideways" through time. In this world, Britain calls itself the Republic of Britain rather than the United Kingdom, but is heavily implied to be a fascist dictatorship. UNIT's counterparts, the Republican Security Forces, dress in brownshirts and jackboots, and their headquarters prominently feature a poster of a man resembling an older version of Oswald Mosley, the leader of the real-life British Union of Fascists. The Republican Security Forces' ranks are even English translations of ranks in the Nazi Party.
  • The parallel universe Britain in "Rise of the Cybermen"/"The Age of Steel" calls itself a "people's republic", which gets a reaction from the audience similar to the page quote above. They may be an aversion, but their Britain is ruled by a president who seems to be at best a benign dictator and has shadowy government organisations that seem to be able to take whatever they want to carry out their plans. (Then again, in the Doctor Who universe, regular Britain also has shadowy government organisations that can do whatever they want...)
• Flash Gordon: Ming's authoritarian state is called "The United Peoples of Mongo".
• Mission: Impossible: Whenever the team was off to Eastern Europe, it was usually operating in the People's Republic of Something.
• The Prisoner (1967): The Village is allegedly run by the Citizens' Council (which is always referred to by the administration as "your Citizens' Council"), and the various Number Twos are always quick to loudly proclaim the Village's democratic nature. In reality, the Citizens' Council is a bunch of brainwashed mental vegetables who rubber-stamp whatever the current Number Two says and the post of Number Two itself is seen filled by a rigged election whose results are overturned as soon as they no longer serve the purposes of the Village's true rulers.
• QI: In one episode, Jimmy Carr joked that countries with "Democratic" in their name are hardly that at all, and one describing itself as "the Fascist Junta of..." should be respected for its honesty.
• Red Dwarf: Though it's never named, the totalitarian state in the Despair Squid's hallucination has the trappings of one of these. There are election posters that reveal that the Fascist party has been in power for three straight decades. A black-suited government agent attempts to shoot a child for stealing "an apple of the people" and addresses the crew as "voters." Then Lister is revealed to be the Voter-Colonel, who purges people in order to "purify" the voter rolls.
  • A variant in the episode "Mechocracy". Both Rimmer and Kryten run to be elected President of Red Dwarf's sentient machines. Rimmer, a wannabe authoritarian, names his political party the "Lovely Fluffy Liberal Alliance".
• Revolution: The Monroe Republic is implied to be this, considering that their military force consists of militias who force their citizens to pay taxes with food. Given this throwback to feudalism, and with Monroe leading what appears to be nothing more than a military dictatorship, it's a republic in name only. "The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia" shows that the Georgia Federation seems to be a much better place to live, with steam-powered technology, wealth, international trade, and commerce. The episodes "Home", "The Love Boat", and "The Longest Day" show that the Plains Nation is essentially made up of nomadic tribes living like Plains Indians, but without the racist implications. The friendliness in that area depends on the tribe you encounter.
• One episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation involves a planet controlled by two factions, called the "Alliance" and the "Coalition". Their behavior is akin to rival street gangs.
• In Vagrant Queen, The Republic is more of a military dictatorship than a republic. It's so repressive that there are people who actually long for a restoration of the religious monarchy that preceded it.
• The Walking Dead Television Universe:
  • The Walking Dead (2010): Season 11 introduces the Commonwealth, a partially restored city in Ohio that has rebuilt pre-Zombie Apocalypse society, including a full government and military. Unfortunately, it runs on a very strict caste system based on people's pre-apocalypse careers, with very little upward mobility and the upper classes getting far better treatment and luxuries than the lower ranks. Also, the military are also the police and have the authority to snatch people off the street and hold them indefinitely, there's shades of Hereditary Republic (the current Governor is the daughter of the Commonwealth's founder), and they're only willing to work with other communities that are both useful and willing to totally submit to their authority.
  • The Walking Dead: World Beyond and The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live have the Civic Republic, a survivor community based in Philadelphia that's managed to reestablish a fully functional city. While it has a civilian government, the military is virtually independent, and views the CR as the last bastion of civilization and will do anything to protect its interests. This includes virtually enslaving smaller communities they can milk for resources, wiping out larger ones that might become rivals, and subjecting useful refugees rescued from the outside world to years of indentured servitude until they either enlist or earn their way into the city. Meanwhile, the entire time the civilian population remains largely ignorant of what the military gets up to.
• Yes, Minister: Lampshaded this, with "East Yemen" playing the role of the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen, better known as South Yemen, which (much the way West Virginia is north of Virginia) was geographically east of the Yemen Arab Republic/"North Yemen".

Professional Wrestling

• The "era-specific title" of John Laurinaitis's regime as general manager of both Raw and Smackdown is called "People Power".

Radio

• An episode of Think the Unthinkable featured the team at Unthinkable Solutions scheduled to meet with the Minister of Finance for the fictional African state of Nambitrea.
  Sophie: Formerly the Democratic Republic of Nambitrea, when it was Communist.
  Ryan: And before that, it was the Nambitrean People's Republic, when it was Fascist.
  Sophie: And before that it was called New Devon, when it was completely owned by Lord Brinkworth.

Tabletop Games

• In the BattleTech universe, this trope is extremely common. The major powers of the Inner Sphere are called, respectively, the Lyran Commonwealth^note originally an oligarchic merchant republic ruled by nine Archons from its major noble houses until the Archon of house Steiner overthrew the other eight Archons in a military coup, currently a feudal monarchy (with practices and traditions left over from the oligarchic days limiting the Archon), the Draconis Combine^note feudal and monarchic Police State founded and controlled by house Kurita, still a feudal monarchy and proud of it, the Federated Suns^note started out as The Federation led by a president until house Davion became too powerful, rendered the ruling council irrelevant following a Succession Crisis and re-styled it as a feudal alliance of princes with the Davions as first princes, currently a feudal monarchy (albeit one with a theoretical council and constitution limiting the First Prince's powers), the Capellan Confederation^note began as a pact of mutual self-defence that eventually saw all power centralized in house Liao, who turned it into a centralized Police State, currently a feudal monarchy and the Free Worlds League^note started out as The Federation until the Captain-General of their armed forces was forced to declare a state of emergency, which has persisted for the last 300 years. In theory, still The Federation, although the actual power of parliament is limited to matters not involving foreign policy, the military, or regulating the power of the executive branch... So in practice, it's a feudal monarchy. The galaxy's Golden Age came about under the rule of the Star League^note The Federation of the above five realms, led by a (hereditary) ruler of house Cameron as its 'first amongst equals' who quickly centralized the League's military under its direct control, making it a feudal monarchy in all but name. The League also promptly declared all humans part of the League no matter the Periphery's thoughts on the subject, which was brought down by the machinations of the Rim Worlds Republic^note which was a feudal monarchy controlled by house Amaris. The inner sphere would later be joined by The Free Rasalhague Republic^note breakaway nation made up of former Lyran and Draconian worlds with a common cultural identity. Was an actual republic with a parliament that was led by an elected executive officer called a 'Prince' (there is some implication they called it that as a way to appease the aristocratic inclinations of its neighbour states without having to actually be as aristocratic as them)… For all of its twelve-year existence before Clan Wolf and Clan Ghost Bear turned up and functionally annihilated it.
• Eclipse Phase has the Jovian Republic...known to the entire outer system as the Jovian Junta, a repressive anti-transhuman state that views humanity as being far too immature to use Pandora gates or transhumanist technology safely, and accuses virtually every other power bloc in the setting of Transhuman Treachery.
• One of the example factions in Tomorrow's War is the Democratic People's Republic of Glory, "Glory" is the only part of the name that isn't a blatant lie, and only because it's the name of the planet they colonized. Their main enemy on Glory is the simply named Republic of Arden and their terrestrial allies include the PRC and Brazil (whose army is known as the "Brazilian National Liberation Army").

Theatre

• The well-known line "The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers" (Henry VI, Part II) is set in a less well-known context of the speaker's intention to tear down the existing social order and make himself a dictator:
  Cade: I thank you, good people — there shall be no money; all shall eat and drink on my score, and I will apparel them all in one livery, that they may agree like brothers, and worship me their lord.

Video Games

• This can be invoked by players of web-based nation-building games like NationStates and Cyber Nations.
• The Democratic Republic of Sahrani, also known as "North Sahrani", from ArmA : Armed Assault, the country is basically a Hispanic version of North Korea (with a touch of Cuba): a communist dictatorship which split from the more richer, capitalistic and US-aligned Kingdom of Sahrani, or "South Sahrani".
  • Also, Chernarus from ARMA II is a former bearer of this trope (and a certain political faction wants to return the country to that state). Then the zombies happened.
  • Takistan in ARMA II: Operation Arrowhead is a dictatorship led by Colonel Muhammad R. Aziz, who was a socialist rebel leader supported by the Soviet Union against the Royalist government of the Kingdom of Takistan. Aziz would later rule Takistan with an iron fist, and threaten their southern nation of Karzeghistan, leading to the events of Operation Arrowhead.
  • The Altis Government is more lowkey about its supposedly democratic nature, but no less bloodthirsty. Played straight in the Tac Ops DLC, showing who they really were and how they came to power.
• The Aurigan Directorate from Harebrained Schemes' Battletech, which replaced The Aurigan Coalition, is a downplayed example: A 'directorate' is slightly further on the 'evil' scale than a 'coalition' but not all that terrible on its own. In practice, the Directorate replaced an oligarchic Elective Monarchy with a strong council of nobles (a coalition of them, if you will) with a straight-down military dictatorship with the director having all the power. Said director then instituted The Purge of political opponents, centralized the power onto the capital world, and dissolved the council of nobles.
• Rapture in BioShock was built to be a capitalist utopia free from religious and government interference, where anyone can achieve for his/her own gain rather than for the fulfillment of others, and where the artist need not fear the censor and the scientist need not be bound by petty morality. Too bad the man who built it, Andrew Ryan, was also a crazy hyper-capitalist who so strongly believed everyone had to be a Self-Made Man that he prohibited publicly funded social programs and altruistic charities, so everything in the city was privately owned, the poor were thought of as "parasites" and absolutely everything had a price tag on it, even basic necessities like food, water, sanitation, and oxygen. This environment of completely unfettered dog-eat-dog economics alienated the worse-off citizens of Rapture and allowed a man named Frank Fontaine to make an absolute killing smuggling contraband from the surface. Ryan could not compete with Fontaine on even terms and this emerging threat to his power base pissed Ryan off to no end, so he founded a Secret Police force to seize Fontaine Futuristics by force, scuttling his entire philosophy in the process. Ryan didn't know at the time, but for the rest of Rapture, this meant that Ryan can seize any business deemed too profitable, and this was the last straw. Ryan, a man who founded an underwater city built on the ideals of personal liberty, began cracking down ever harder on his citizens — first his police came for the smugglers, then they came for political activists, and eventually they came for the lounge singers who wrote mildly derisive songs about him (Keep in mind that by that time, Sofia Lamb, a political rival to Ryan who championed collectivism, had been outright wiped from the records). In the end, Ryan turned Rapture into a One Nation Under Copyright not that different from the collectivist states he so greatly despised.
• Brigador: Solo Nobre under the Great Leader. Initially a corporate-ruled colony until a coup by the NEP (Novo Exército do Povo, the "New People's Army"), after it, Great Leader closed off the state; shuttered the ports, restricting trade and travel; and began a program of rapid development to establish social order and build strong orbital defenses against any interference from space.
• The less democratic your BLOC nation is, the harder its name tries to pass it off as a bastion of freedom. Authoritarian democracies are named "People's Republic of ___". One-party states are named "Democratic People's Republic of ___". Countries ruled by military junta are named "The Revolutionary Democratic People's Republic of ___". Dictatorships are named "The Great Revolutionary Democratic People's Republic of ___". Actual multi-party republics are simply called "Republic of ___".
• In Cyberpunk 2077, the New United States of America has for decades been a dictatorship and One Nation Under Copyright controlled by the MegaCorp Militech. Every president since 2019 has been a former CEO of the company, all citizens are forced to have State Identification Numbers (SIN) and pay 10% of their income to retain them (along with their civil rights), and in the Deep South voting is typically held at gunpoint. Yet as bad as all this is, everybody agrees Night City is even worse. Everybody, that is, except for Johnny Silverhand, as we see in the Phantom Liberty expansion — he once fought for the NUSA and Militech, and as a result of the hell he experienced holds them in as much disdain as the rest of the corporate powers that be.
• Disco Elysium has the Moralintern, a Fantasy Conflict Counterpart to the Allied Powers in World War II which developed into an international organization that governs the known world, with the Player Character Harry being one of their officers. They're Affably Evil as they preach humanist and moralist values, but in practice, it's actually aggressive neoliberalism that leaves no room for those who disagree. Their Patron Saint Delores Dei was a Dark Messiah who violently suppressed dissent, the one official you meet is a Windbag Politician Bitch in Sheep's Clothing whose every word is either useless or sounds distinctly ominous, and the digger you deep the worse it gets. After discovering Klaasje is a Femme Fatale Spy you can arrest her, but soon afterward the Moralintern has her executed in her cell without trial. The Moralist Vision Quest has you make contact with one of their Dread Zeppelins above the city, and saying the wrong thing leads to a Non-Standard Game Over in which you're unpersoned. The game's Sequel Hook involves Harry's superiors planning to recruit him for a Military Coup against their tyranny.
• The Minmatar Republic of EVE Online rides this line to some degree. The Minmatar people, despite being a spacefaring civilisation with a reputation for technological innovation (i.e: building working spaceships out of scrap metal and duct tape), are very fond of their seven ancestral tribes, complete with elders and shamans and all that the word "tribe" might suggest. The current leader of the Minmatar Republic is Chief Maleatu Shakor of the Brutor Tribe, who goes by the title "Sanmatar". His predecessor was Prime Minister Karin Midular, chief of the Sebiestor Tribe. Shakor led the Republic parliament in a vote of no confidence that cost Midular her job, appointed himself Sanmatar when the Republic parliament folded in on itself and fell apart, and the result has been that the Minmatar have slowly worked their way towards a system more akin to a meeting of tribal elders under Shakor's leadership. Whatever the system might be called, it most certainly isn't a republic but they still call it that, presumably for lack of a more accurate term.
• In the Fallout franchise, the United States became this, under the corruption of a Government Conspiracy of fanatical, authoritarian, red-baiting far-right oligarchs called the Enclave.
  • One of the bad endings for Fallout 2 has the New California Republic become a far-right military dictatorship if the player assassinates Congressman Westin & Vice President Carlson as well as fails to secure the alliance with Vault 15. To make matters worse, the ending narration mentions that Enclave survivors managed to secure high-ranking positions. Thankfully Fallout: New Vegas cements this as non-canon.
  • Fallout 3 has The Republic Of Dave, which teeters on this trope. It's not too bad a place, but President Dave will have visitors shot if they don't address him properly, legalised presidential bigamy so he could have another wife, teaches incorrect facts in school, and has convinced everyone he is the only viable candidate, so even though they hold regular elections, they only have one choice, unless the player passes a speech check to convince them otherwise (and even then you have to commit electoral fraud to get someone else elected, as Dave will declare the incumbent (himself) the winner in case of a tie). The place used to be the Kingdom of Ted before Dave ousted his father in a coup, believing that a republic is better. If his son, Bob, wins the election, he will turn the place into the Empire of Bob and become isolationist. (According to background material, this same process has gone on for several generations.)
• In Mass Effect, despite the Batarian government styling itself as a Hegemony, no-one in Citadel Space buys it. According to propaganda, their homeworld boasts a population of twelve billion, a flourishing art industry, and an economy to rival the Asari Republics. In reality, it's a poverty-stricken military dictatorship that with a strict caste system and practices slavery of both its own citizens and aliens. They're also implied to be much weaker than humanity as they regularly pay off bandits and pirates to attack human colonies.
• Not for Broadcast, a Spiritual Successor to Papers, Please, revolves around the player's home country being gradually turned into a socialist dystopia with the Player Character's news organization turned into their Propaganda Machine. People over a certain income level are barred from leaving the country as they have their property forcibly seized & redistributed, the elderly are barred from their "free" healthcare and are essentially forced into their assisted suicide program, and the player's teenage son asks for permission to join their equivalent of Hitler Youth early on. Things only get worse from there, as the regime devolves into full-on Dirty Communists utilizing Bread and Circuses to distract people from the nightmare they live in.
• Planetside: The Terran Republic is in fact a Stalinist-like and authoritarian police state seeking to seize control of Auraxis by force and then reestablish contact with Earth. In the first game, they also had elements of Those Wacky Nazis and were clearly the bad guys, but for 2 this aspect was dropped.
• The Commonwealth in Red Faction II. A commonwealth being essentially a republic, this one is nevertheless ruled by a dictator, then by another after a coup. The player can remedy this.
• SIGNALIS: The Eusan Nation is a downplayed example: it is clearly tyrannical, but has a neutral name. Its visual style is inspired by the German Democratic Republic, also known as Communist East Germany.
• The People’s Alliance for Common Treatment (or simply PACT) from Sunrider. Its leader Veniczar Arcadius is a former anti-Imperial revolutionary turned megalomaniacal galaxy-conquering dictator with a cult of personality, and PACT itself is heavily implied to be a communist state with several parallels to Soviet Russia.
• Suzerain has two examples:
  • The Republic of Wehlen is a socialist presidential republic on a constitutional level, but it is currently ruled by President Wiktor Smolak, a de-facto dictator that aggressively represses both the opposition and his nation's ethnic minorities.
  • The Kingdom of Rumburg is meant to be a constitutional monarchy run by an elected parliament, but in practice Queen Beatrice Livingston is an absolute monarch with the power to manage the nation's economic and foreign policy, which she uses for expansionist and colonialist aims.
• In one developer demo for Tropico 4, the dev says "This island is the People's Democratic Republic of Tropico, which isn't democratic, isn't a republic, and isn't for the people." Also in the game itself, where the Player Character's election slogan is: Vote El Presidente. Or Else.
• An in-joke revolving around Uru: Ages Beyond Myst is that DRC — the D'ni Restoration Council, the in-character face of the game company — secretly stands for the Democratic Republic of Channelwood.
• Helldivers: "Super Earth" is run by a Managed Democracy with the justification that predictable elections are more efficient. The government sends out troops across the galaxy to wage war for the sake of "spreading Democracy", and the citizens (especially the titular Helldivers) are too brainwashed and stupid to ask any questions.

Webcomics

• The website hosting Le avventure del grande Darth Vader plays with this in an article where the title character states he "freed" a newsgroup (actually, he just decided to post again into an abandoned newsgroup) and issues a "new manifesto" stating, in order: that the newsgroup is now a "democratic popular republic"; that he owns full legislative, executive and judiciary powers within the newsgroup; that ideas different from his own are always off-topic; and finally that he can delete off-topic messages any time.
• In Last Res0rt, Celigo's full name is the People's Republic of Celigo (often shorted to P.R.O. Celigo). Supposedly it's not a bad place to live... as long as you have wings, anwyay.
• A Miracle of Science has the People's Republic of the Moon, which isn't actually all that bad; it's a drab grey place, but then it was Luna to start with. (It's Venus, with no such nominative pretensions, that you really have to be careful visiting.) Luna is a communist state, whose economy is described in-comic as "managed" and "a mess", where consumer goods flow like water (in order to show how prosperous it is) while essentials are often in short supply - everyone has sunglasses, but few have shoes.
• The Order of the Stick #698 has a map including a place called "People's Democratic Dictatorship". There's also the rather bizarre inversion in the form of Tyrinaria. Its ruler, Lord Tyrinar the Bloody, was a kind, benevolent man who genuinely wished for peace and prosperity. Tarquin disagreed with this idea.
• Due to his Global Ignorance, USA mistakes the relatively harmless Democratic Republic of the Congo for one in this◊ Polandball comic.
• Sandra and Woo illustrates the respective standards of living here.

Web Original

• An Examination of Extra-Universal Systems of Government: The Free German Reich claims that they're a democracy with a fully transparent government that televises all proceedings. Other nations refute this, stating that the military-industrial bureaucracy is the real power, with the parliament members being carefully selected before being allowed to run, and those televised proceedings all being scripted. Plus, everything is heavily regulated and policed, and eugenics are still a government-sanctioned norm.
• gen:LOCK has the Great Union of the Fourth Turning Republics, a harshly authoritarian state on a campaign of global conquest. Their forces field flesh-eating nanotech swarms, have no compunctions about killing civilians, even firing on evacuation craft. The Union government makes "intellectuals" disappear and is heavily implied to have harsh policies against social non-conformity like genderfluidity.
• Imperium Nova: The United Federation of People's Republics, in Gemini, mostly a Fantasy Counterpart Culture of the Soviet Union, but with North Korean-style nepotism thrown in.
• New Deal Coalition Retained: China shifts from one form of this to another in the 90s when the communist regime is overthrown and replaced with a democratically-elected government that is really just a puppet system that answers to the military.
• The Onion: During the Florida vote tabulation snafu between George W. Bush and Al Gore, the Onion ran an article where Bill Clinton took control of the United States and renamed it the "Holy United Imperial Americlintonian Demopublic" — alongside invalidating all election results and naming himself President-for-Life.
• Piecing Together the Ashes: Reconstructing the Old World Order: The People's State of Gitmo, which rules most of post-Deluge Cuba, is an oppressive dictatorship run by an unelected bureaucracy that enforces a strict caste system.

Western Animation

• In American Dad! near the beginning of the episode "Rodger Codger" is a sign for the fictional country "Republic of Balkavia" when the camera pans down you see that 5 people are hung from it. As a bonus, the sign also says "Freedom, Peace, Unity". It turned out to be a CIA training course.
• Archer:
  • In the episode "The Honeymooners", Sterling Archer Lampshades this trope after North Korean agents address their plans to send the captured Archer and Lana back to "The Glorious Democratic People's Republic of Korea".
  Archer: It's neither of those things; it isn't democratic, it isn't a republic, and it is definitely not glorious!
  • Mallory often uses the sarcastic "People's Republic" epithet when referring to anywhere with a slightly more expansive welfare state than the USA — "The People's Republic of Canada" gets thrown around a lot in reference to their socialised healthcare.
• The Galactic Federation in Rick and Morty apparently has elected leaders but seems to reserve all political power for a single species of Insectoid Aliens, is relentlessly expansionist, and turns its conquered planets into Police States with heavy Government Drug Enforcement. They conquer Earth in the second season finale, and then Rick destroys them entirely in the third season premier by devaluing their currency.
• The Federation and their archenemies the Triceraton Republic in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003), they are both militaristic forces that want to conquer the galaxy, which only calls themselves a Federation and a Republic. Though to be fair the latter actually was a republic at one point until the corrupt Prime Leader Zanramon took over turned the Republic into a dictatorship.
• The Transformers has the Socialist Democratic Federated Republic of Carbombya, led by Supreme Military Commander, President-for-Life, and King of Kings Abdul Fakkadi. It's a fairly transparent parody of the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Massdom,^note Officially the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya. said country being notorious in the news when Carbombya was first introduced in the 1980s.
• X-Men: The Animated Series: The Free Republic of Genosha. Free for humans, that is. It's built on Mutant slavery, enforced by exploding neck-collars and killer robots.

---