History Main / TheGovernment

* The new government in ''Series/{{Jericho}}'' restores order via PrivateMilitaryContractors and a healthy dose of help from a major mega-corp. While there is a sinister connection between the corporation and the new government, the average person who works for the new system is usually only as obstructive as the new laws force them to be.
* On ''Series/TheXFiles'', the evil American government is one of the evil forces behind many conspiracies, like tests on humans, subliminal seduction, medical experiments, or the truth about alien life and their connections to the Earth. Russians are part of it, too, and it's implied that other world shadow leaders are involved as well.

** A major theme of Delta Green is how the mighty uncaring forces of government bureaucracy are NotSoDifferent from the uncaring nihilistic [[CosmicHorrorStory Cosmical]] forces of the ''Franchise/CthulhuMythos''.

See also DemocracyIsBad and PresidentEvil. Compare PoliceState and TheEmpire.

* The short-lived spin off of ''The X-Files'' ''Series/TheLoneGunmen'' had The Governement as antagonists 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.

** The comic also goes out of it's way to show it was only after the far left took control and left NATO that the war happened causing the far right to gain control.

* The Government in the Franchise/ResidentEvil franchise started showing some shades of this as far back as Resident Evil 3. Resident Evil 5 confirmed it. If at ''best'' they're not out right evil they're still definitely culpable of certain things behind the scenes.

* ''VideoGame/HalfLife1'' has military and government forces ordered to contain the Black Mesa incident through force, which includes silencing all witnesses. Eventually, this includes many of the military personnel left behind in a hasty evacuation.

See also DemocracyIsBad and PresidentEvil.

* In ''Franchise/MetalGear'', The Government starts off as merely being a breeding ground for Machiavellian bastards who don't give a rat's ass about the hero or any other soldier. Later on, it turns out it's being controlled by a really bizarre GovernmentConspiracy (or even possibly an AncientConspiracy) of some sort, which the villain of the original MSX games is implied to have been fighting against.

Recently, some shows and movies have slightly subverted this with a government that is villainous not due to malevolence or conspiracy, but due to [[HanlonsRazor ineptitude]], [[IDidWhatIHadToDo necessity]], or [[InherentInTheSystem sheer size]]. This is the government that isn't actually out to get you, but isn't interested enough in your plight to notice that there's an JustForFun/{{egregious}} abuse going on. Can be condensed into a single character, a [[LawfulStupidChaoticStupid rules-stickler]] or [[ObstructiveBureaucrat jobsworth]] who doesn't much care that your life's on the line: [[VastBureaucracy you still have to fill out form 47-B]]. (Such characters have some overlap with the less sympathetic instances of InspectorJavert.)

Recently, some shows and movies have slightly subverted this with a government that is villainous not due to malevolence or conspiracy, but due to [[HanlonsRazor ineptitude]], [[IDidWhatIHadToDo necessity]], or [[InherentInTheSystem sheer size]]. This is the government that isn't actually out to get you, but isn't interested enough in your plight to notice that there's an JustForFun/{{egregious}} abuse going on. Can be condensed into a single character, a [[LawfulStupidChaoticStupid rules-stickler]] or [[ObstructiveBureaucrat jobsworth]] who doesn't much care that your life's on the line: [[ObstructiveBureaucrat you still have to fill out form 47-B]]. (Such characters have some overlap with the less sympathetic instances of InspectorJavert.)

Recently, some shows and movies have slightly subverted this with a government that is villainous not due to malevolence or conspiracy, but due to [[HanlonsRazor ineptitude]], [[IDidWhatIHadToDo necessity]], or [[InherentInTheSystem sheer size]]. This is the government that isn't actually out to get you, but isn't interested enough in your plight to notice that there's an JustForFun/{{egregious}} abuse going on. Can be condensed into a single character, a [[LawfulStupidChaoticStupid rules-stickler]] or [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jobsworth jobsworth]] who doesn't much care that your life's on the line: [[ObstructiveBureaucrat you still have to fill out form 47-B]]. (Such characters have some overlap with the less sympathetic instances of InspectorJavert.)

Recently, some shows and movies have slightly subverted this with a government that is villainous not due to malevolence or conspiracy, but due to [[HanlonsRazor ineptitude]], [[IDidWhatIHadToDo necessity]], or [[InherentInTheSystem sheer size]]. This is the government that isn't actually out to get you, but isn't interested enough in your plight to notice that there's an {{egregious}} abuse going on. Can be condensed into a single character, a [[LawfulStupidChaoticStupid rules-stickler]] or [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jobsworth jobsworth]] who doesn't much care that your life's on the line: [[ObstructiveBureaucrat you still have to fill out form 47-B]]. (Such characters have some overlap with the less sympathetic instances of InspectorJavert.)

* The government (specifically, a black ops group known as The Cadmus Project) was the major antagonist for ''JusticeLeagueUnlimited'''s second season StoryArc, which placed Superman, Mr. "Truth, Justice, and the American Way" in the difficult position of having to fight against the government of the country he loved so much. Fortunately, the head heavy of this organization, Amanda Waller, eventually realizes her main financial backer, Lex Luthor, is manipulating her to destroy the League. As a result, she becomes an ally of the superheroes, although that doesn't mean she wasn't prepared to kill them along with Luthor and herself as well in the climactic episode if they weren't able to defeat him on their own in the final battle to save the planet.

* While obviously more local than other examples here, ''SinCity'' has this in spades since one of the most powerful men in the state has a SerialKiller/Pedophile son who is allowed to run free.

* The mysterious "them" in ''NowhereMan'' certainly included the Government.

* ''PrisonBreak'' has two forms of government villains: the well-meaning police officers who are just following the rules and capturing the Fox River Eight in order to enforce the law, and the evil vice-president-turned-president's men who want to kill everybody that gets in the way of their massive conspiracy.
* Recent seasons of ''[[Series/TwentyFour 24]]'' have featured terrorist conspiracies operating from [[spoiler:within the White House]] - directed by [[spoiler:the president]] in season 5, the [[spoiler:vice president]] in season 6.

* The Capitol government in ''Literature/TheHungerGames''

* ''{{Shooter}}'' portrays the government as full of corruption and conspiracies. The hero, in the end, becomes an anti-government terrorist.

* The ''Governing Agency'' and ''The Safeguard'' from ''{{Blame}}!''. The former is a benevolent yet mostly impotent system that requires regular humans with a [[MacGuffin extremely rare genetic marker]] to tell them what to do, while the latter acts like an anti-virus system that [[KillAllHumans happens to see all humans without said gene as viruses]].

* The U.S. Government in ''{{Heroman}}'' are turning into the secondary antagonists of the series.

** GeoffJohns at least ''tried'' to make Gyrich more sympathetic during the "Red Zone" arc, in which he secretly works with [[Comicbook/TheFalcon Falcon]] (his old nemesis from back in the "You're going to be on the team because I say they need a TokenMinority!" days) to discover the plots of the corrupt Secretary of Defense (who's actually the RedSkull in disguise). Once Johns was off the title, however, Gyrich not only went back to his old ways, he got ''worse''.

* Neo Arcadia from the ''MegaManZero'' games, which started out as a peaceful city-state where humans and robots lived in peace until it became fascist and genocidal after the death of its leader. [[spoiler:Nearly dead, anyways, using his body as a SealedEvilInACan, and his lingering consciousness was one of the closest things the series has to a ghost.]]