securocrat, noun

/səˈkjʊərəʊkræt/
Origin:
EnglishShow more Blend of English security + bureaucrat.
One who advocates the close involvement of military and police officers in government, and the extensive use of the security forces as a means of ensuring order; a military or police officer who has an influential position in the government. Also attributive passing into adjective, of rule by a government dominated by such people.
Note:
Used particularly of the Nationalist government of South Africa in the mid-1980s, during the term of President P.W. Botha.
1989 E. Prov. Herald 7 Mar. 4If the party wants the emergency relaxed while the securocrats (whom President Botha tends to attract) want it maintained, then maintained it will be.
1990 A. Goldstuck Rabbit in Thorn Tree 33At the height of PW Botha’s ‘securocrat’ rule..the various state security bodies were virtually given the run of the country.
1991 J. Pauw In Heart of Whore 122The rise of the military can be traced back to 1978 when PW Botha, former Minister of Defence, became Prime Minister...The new Prime Minister began to use the military to fulfil functions which in normal circumstances should have been a police preserve. Moreover, the growing influence of the military was reflected in the numbers of SADF personnel now in positions of power as public decision-makers. South Africa was now to be governed largely by ‘securocrats’.
1991 A. Van Wyk Birth of New Afrikaner 30The crisis..exposed the backstairs influence of..the so-called securocrats, owing much to the power of General H.J. van den Bergh, head of the Bureau of State Security (Boss, counterpart of the American CIA..)...Yet their new government headed by P.W. Botha was merely to replace the Police Big Chiefs with the Armed Forces and continue securocrat rule.
1992 P. Cull in Weekend Post 13 June 10More suited to the securocrat days of P.W. Botha than the present.
One who advocates the close involvement of military and police officers in government, and the extensive use of the security forces as a means of ensuring order; a military or police officer who has an influential position in the government. Also attributive passing into adjective, of rule by a government dominated by such people.
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Secunde, nounn.seebamboes, nounn.
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