Law

=== Military and police ===
{{main|Police|Military}}
[[File:South african police may 2010.jpg|thumb|Officers of the [[South African Police Service]] in [[Johannesburg]], 2010]]

While military organisations have existed as long as government itself, the idea of a standing police force is a relatively modern concept. For example, [[Medieval England]]'s system of travelling [[Criminal law|criminal court]]s, or [[Assize Court|assizes]], used [[show trial]]s and public executions to instill communities with fear to maintain control.<ref>See, e.g. ''Tuberville v Savage'' (1669), 1 Mod. Rep. 3, 86 Eng. Rep. 684, where a knight said in a threatening tone to a layperson, "If it were not assize time, I would not take such language from you."</ref> The first modern police were probably those in 17th-century Paris, in the court of [[Louis XIV of France|Louis XIV]],<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |title=History of Police Forces |url=http://www.history.com/encyclopedia.do?articleId=219522 |encyclopedia=History.com Encyclopedia |access-date=10 December 2006 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061229014447/http://www.history.com/encyclopedia.do?articleId=219522 |archive-date=29 December 2006 }}</ref> although the Paris Prefecture of Police claim they were the world's first uniformed policemen.<ref>[{{cite web|title=Des Sergents de Ville et Gardiens de la Paix à la Police de Proximité : la Préfecture de Police au Service des Citoyens|language=fr|publisher=La Préfecture de Police de Paris|url=http://www.prefecture-police-paris.interieur.gouv.fr/documentation/bicentenaire/theme_expo4.htm|access-date=24 January 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080506215949/http://www.prefecture-police-paris.interieur.gouv.fr/documentation/bicentenaire/theme_expo4.htm|archive-date=6 May 2008}}</ref>

[[Max Weber]] famously argued that the state is that which controls the [[monopoly on the legitimate use of force]].<ref>Weber, [[s:Politics as a Vocation|Politics as a Vocation]]</ref><ref>Weber, ''The Theory of Social and Economic Organisation'', 154</ref> The military and police carry out enforcement at the request of the government or the courts. The term [[failed state]] refers to states that cannot implement or enforce policies; their police and military no longer control security and order and society moves into anarchy, the absence of government.{{efn|In these cases sovereignty is eroded, and often warlords acquire excessive powers (Fukuyama, ''State-Building'', 166–167).}}