Beyond Trending: What is deep state?
Is ‘deep state' a covert network of formal and informal institutions within a state, or the power of the unelected over civilian governance?
A Republican Congressman recently claimed that the former US President Richard Nixon was “framed” by the “deep state” in the Watergate scandal, and Vice President J D Vance compared Nixon’s treatment with “what the same groups of people, the same institutions, tried to do to Donald Trump,” reported The Wall Street Journal.
Although these arguments are dismissed by some as baseless, it draws attention to the idea of “deep state”. What is it? Does it refer to a covert network of forces, including a state’s military and intelligence agencies? Or is it about the power of the unelected over civilian governance?
Deep state is largely seen as a result of an interplay between formal and informal institutions in a state. Its members are said to form a covert network and operate behind the scenes, influencing various facets of governance.
