History Main / TheGovernment

** [[HistoryMarchesOn The fluff marches on]]. As of 5e, the Imperium is pretty good at waging war, and its bueracratic system is functional, if still unwieldy. Reinforments generally arrive within months, and Space Marines can respond within days because the bureaucracy that runs the galaxy is completely different than the one that runs the army. The 5th ed. rulebook still says that requests to the Adeptus Terra can result in reinforcements arriving centuries late due to Warp interference, being low priority due to that Hivefleet/Waaaagh/Chaos Warband one sector over, the message not arriving on time, or even simple human error. The new Imperial Guard codex has some rather dramatic bureaucratic mistakes as well, like accidentally drafting an entire planetary population. Twice. On the same planet. Then they ordered the planet punished for not responding the second time. They also ordered an entire regiment executed for desertion months after they all died heroically in battle.

* ''Series/StargateSG1'' averted this trope. The government, despite doing big cover ups, collaborating with aliens, and shooting random people just for having snakes inside their heads, are actually the good guys. But there's a rogue faction in NID and later The Trust that ''seeks'' to be an example of the trope.

* ''KiddyGrade'''s Galactic Organization of Trade and Tariffs, or GOTT, is a branch of the Galactic Union (GU), a sort of United-Nations-like government over many of the planets and other locations that have been colonized by humankind across space. And of course, they get their share of conspiracies as well.

* ''Series/StargateSG1'' averted this trope. The government, despite doing big cover ups, collaborating with aliens and shooting random people just for having snakes inside their heads are actually the good guys. But there's a rogue faction in NID and later The Trust that ''seeks'' to be an example of the trope.

* Represented in ''TheInexplicableAdventuresOfBob'' by [[TheMenInBlack Agent Ben and Agent Jerry.]]

* The World Government in ''OnePiece'', which seems to be behind at least ''two'' conspiracies; one involving the recovery of [[LostTechnology ancient superweapons]], and one involving a cover-up of the world's true history (the so-called "Void Century" during which the World Government came into existence). Apparently, this cover-up necessitates ''[[MoralEventHorizon blowing an entire island and everyone on it to kingdom come]]''.

** The World Government has ''government-sanctioned pirates'' known as the Shichibukai, they ignore their laws as they please (such as the abolition of ''slavery''), they try to cover up every major incident, such as a massive breakout of highly dangerous criminals, that would ''reflect badly on them'', and support the doctrine of "Absolute Justice", which is basically just an excuse to murder criminals regardless of whoever is in the way, such as ''innocent civilians''. Coupled with the fact that they allow the World Nobles run around and do whatever the hell they please, and that's when people begin to realize how corrupt "the world" of One Piece is, even by today's standards.
* The crew in ''MartianSuccessorNadesico'' finds themselves fighting on every side of a three-way brawl between The Government, {{Corrupt Corporate Executive}}s and an AlienInvasion.

*** And that "completely above the law" thing is worse than you think. If there is anyone that they can't shoot and has openly defied them, you know what they do? They summon an '''''admiral''''', one of the World Government's Greatest Military Powers (basically their strongest individual fighters), to take care of the threat. To make it clear, the Admirals are on a threat level that makes anyone who ''isn't'' as strong as one of the commanders of the Whitebeard Pirates, or hell, close to the strength of one of the Yonkou, flee the immediate vicinity (as in, the island they're on, and probably the two nearest ones as well). Talk about DisproportionateRetribution.

* ''[[TheXFiles X-Files]].''
** The short-lived spin off ''TheLoneGunmen'' had this as well, although the pilot had the protagonist's father point out that the evil was being done by a very small part and not the entire US government.

* ''Series/StargateSG1'' averted this. The government, despite doing big cover ups, collaborating with aliens and shooting random people just for having snakes inside their heads are actually the good guys. But there's a rogue faction in NID and later The Trust that ''seeks'' to be an example of the trope.

*** And that "completely above the law" thing is worse than you think. If there is anyone that they can't shoot and has openly defied them, you know what they do? They summon an '''''admiral''''', one of the World Government's Greatest Military Powers (basically their strongest individual fighters), to take care of the threat. To make it clear, the Admirals are on a threat level that makes anyone who ''isn't'' as strong as one of the commanders of the Whitebeard Pirates, or hell, close to the strength of one of the Four Emperors, flee the immediate vicinity (as in, the island they're on, and probably the two nearest ones as well). Talk about DisproportionateRetribution.
** The World Government has ''government-sanctioned pirates'' known as the Seven Warlords of the Sea, they ignore their laws as they please (such as the abolition of ''slavery''), they try to cover up every major incident, such as a massive breakout of highly dangerous criminals, that would ''reflect badly on them'', and support the doctrine of "Absolute Justice", which is basically just an excuse to murder criminals regardless of whoever is in the way, such as ''innocent civilians''. Coupled with the fact that they allow the World Nobles run around and do whatever the hell they please, and that's when people begin to realize how corrupt "the world" of One Piece is, even by today's standards.

* ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'': The Central 46 is the supreme governing and judicial body in Soul Society. It's made up of 46 members, 40 elders and 6 judges. They handle all laws and decisions regarding Soul Society, including punishments. Their orders are absolute, not even captains have the power or right to question a decision that's been made. The organisation is housed in a building that has no public access. Even captains have no right to turn up there unless explicitly invited to do so (which almost never happens). The organisation not only governs from this building but also lives there. The building also contains the great archive of Soul Society's history.\\

There is an in-universe conspiracy theory that there's a shadow organisation secretly pulling the strings of the Central 46, but the story's only been willing to confirm that on one occasion Aizen destroyed the Central 46 and issued orders in its name to further his own agenda (the entire Soul Society arc was based around this). Once he'd been ousted from Soul Society, Captain-Commander Yamamoto temporarily functioned as the Central 46 until it was rebuilt. The organisation is a flawed system, a strong supporter of tradition, very inflexible once decisions have been made and functions in absolute secrecy making it almost impossible to hold them to account. [[spoiler: Even Yamamoto wasn't willing to defy the wishes of the Central 46, but his successor Kyouraku's very first act as Captain-Commander was to run roughshod over the Central 46's way of doing things, imposing his own style from the get-go and making it very clear that the relationship between the Central 46 and Gotei 13 Captain-Commander is going to undergo a very radical change. Not bad for someone who has a reputation for being BrilliantButLazy.]]
** The Central 46 has a notoriously ''bad'' history with its decisions, its most prominent being the decision to execute the Visored (then-members of the Gotei 13) for gaining hollow powers, exile and bind Urahara for the crime of giving them those powers, and imprisoning Tessai for being an accomplice without so much as an ''investigation'', all only on the word of a single charismatic lieutenant (Aizen). This led to not only to the exile of the aforementioned, but also that of Yoruichi, who saved them from their fate at the cost of also being on the run. The act also severely weakened the Gotei 13 due to the loss of several of its most powerful members, including, at the end, ''six'' captains, essentially cutting their manpower in half, forcing them to promote several people up the ranks earlier than they should've been. Honestly, when you really look back on it, Aizen probably did the Gotei 13 a ''favor'' by killing them. By declaring martial law, Yamamoto acted in the Central 46's stead, allowing things to go a lot smoother for the war until they reconvened.

** The Central 46 has a notoriously ''bad'' history with its decisions, its most prominent being the decision to execute the Visored (then-members of the Gotei 13) for gaining hollow powers, exile and bind Urahara for the crime of giving them those powers, and imprisoning Tessai for being an accomplice without so much as an ''investigation'', all only on the word of a single charismatic lieutenant (Aizen). This led to not only to the exile of the aforementioned, but also that of Yoruichi, who saved them from their fate at the cost of also being on the run. The act also severely weakened the Gotei 13 due to the loss of several of its most powerful members, including, at the end, ''six'' captains, essentially cutting their manpower in half, forcing them to promote several people up the ranks earlier than they should've been. Honestly, when you really look back on it, Aizen probably did the Gotei 13 a ''favor'' by killing them.

* The government in ''{{Zombo}}'' is basically every stereotype of the Eisenhower, Reagan, and Bush administrations turned UpToEleven. Also, Donald Trump is [[PresidentEvil President]].

->''"A government is just a body of people, usually notably ungoverned."''
-->-- '''[[FireFly Malcolm Reynolds]]'''

* In David Wingrove's ''ChungKuo'' series, the seven T'ang Lords even seriously discuss wiring the brains of the world's population (all 36 billion of them) in order to achieve total control: track anyone who is present at a riot or rebel attack for example, and send out pain signals as crowd control. Now that's state power.

** Although in this case, the government ''is'' actively malicious. It's a [[CrapsackWorld world]] where government policy revolves around keeping the masses under control, silencing dissenters, and using the threat of (effectively identical) foreign governments to keep everyone quiet. So TheGovernment is definitely the villain, but not strictly the kind of villain described in this entry.

* The government in ''{{Zombo}}'' is basically every stereotype of the Eisenhower, Reagan, and Bush administrations turned UpToEleven. Also, Donald Trump is {{president|evil}}.

* The Ministry of Magic in the ''HarryPotter'' books, which seems to become increasingly corrupt as the series advances, reaching PuttingOnTheReich levels in the [[HarryPotter/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows final book]] (after Voldemort took over, but ''still'').

* Up until ''CivilWar,'' when this trope really went to town, the embodiment of this trope in the MarvelUniverse was the insufferable Henry Peter Gyrich, the Avengers' official liason in the government. For a short, blissful time in the Busiek/Perez years, the job was filled by Dwayne Freeman, who actually liked the Avengers and wanted to make their lives easier. Of ''course'' Dwayne died making a heroic sacrifice to stop Kang the Conqueror, and the Avengers wound up with ol' Gyrich again.

See also DemocracyIsBad and PresidentEvil.

!!Examples

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

There is an in-universe conspiracy theory that there's a shadow organisation secretly pulling the strings of the Central 46, but the story's only been willing to confirm that on one occasion Aizen destroyed the Central 46 and issued orders in its name to further his own agenda (the entire Soul Society arc was based around this). Once he'd been ousted from Soul Society, Captain-Commander Yamamoto temporarily functioned as the Central 46 until it was rebuilt. The organisation is a flawed system, a strong supporter of tradition, very inflexible once decisions have been made and functions in absolute secrecy making it almost impossible to hold them to account. [[spoiler: Even Yamamoto wasn't willing to defy the wishes of the Central 46, but his successor Kyouraku's very first act as Captain-Commander was to run roughshod over the Central 46's way of doing things, imposing his own style from the get-go and making it very clear that the relationship between the Central 46 and Gotei 13 Captain-Commander is going to undergo a very radical change.]]

There is an in-universe conspiracy theory that there's a shadow organisation secretly pulling the strings of the Central 46, but the story's only been willing to confirm that on one occasion Aizen destroyed the Central 46 and issued orders in its name to further his own agenda (the entire Soul Society arc was based around this). Once he'd been ousted from Soul Society, Captain-Commander Yamamoto temporarily functioned as the Central 46 until it was rebuilt. The organisation is a flawed system, a strong supporter of tradition and very inflexible once decisions have been made. [[spoiler: Even Yamamoto wasn't willing to defy the wishes of the Central 46, but his successor Kyouraku's very first act as Captain-Commander was to run roughshod over the Central 46's way of doing things, imposing his own style from the get-go and making it very clear that the relationship between the Central 46 and Gotei 13 Captain-Commander is going to undergo a very radical change.]]

* The US government in ''{{The 4400}}''.

* The Alliance in ''{{Firefly}}'' has many of the cinematic connotations of the EvilEmpire, while they appear in the text more like TheFederation. They appear first as a massive monolithic craft, staffed with a bit of [[PuttingOnTheReich Reich]], casting a shadow over the protagonists. While much of their activity involves the enforcement of reasonable laws that the protagonists break, it's generally implied, and eventually confirmed, that they have something of a tendency to overstep their bounds. There are only a few characters ever shown on screen who could be called sinister, and indeed no more within the Alliance (blue hands) than outside of it (Niska), but patterns and dialogue would seem to suggest that it's not infrequent for the Alliance to mobilize its vast resources, which [[GoneHorriblyWrong amplifies the effects]] of [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans their plans.]] And in the end, a WellIntentionedExtremist who [[IDidWhatIHadToDo does what he feels he must]] turns out to have been misled by problems InherentInTheSystem, making his personal moral sacrifice a [[HeelRealization complete waste]].

* The government in the original ''VForVendetta'' comic series was a metaphor for the British government under Margaret Thatcher. However, in the film version it's a metaphor for the Bush administration, particularly insofar as certain conspiracy theories are concerned.

The Government. Can be [[Literature/NineteenEightyFour Orwellian]], also seen as the forces that hide aliens/shot JFK. Major unseen character in GovernmentConspiracy shows.