What is a Shallow State?
A system in which the government is so small, stretched so thin, it cannot enforce rule of law.
Set in the near future, the United States becomes an authoritarian crony capitalist system where laws are no longer enforced, leaving the powerful above the law and citizens subject to arbitrary laws enforced by powerful private security forces.
The president declares emergency powers:
The Constitution no longer protects the rights of citizens.
Politicians and pundits who promote extreme small government use the term “deep state” to describe the judicial branch and unelected bureaucracies that enforce the laws passed by the Congress.
The original meaning of “deep state” is a system in which the leader of a country has complete control of the military and a powerful internal security force. They operate outside rule of law and get rich in exchange for supporting the leader. Democracy, if it exists at all, is a sham. The citizens have no feasible means to resist or change the system.
By eliminating the agencies that enforce laws in the U.S., the small government zealots would create a real deep state.