The Rule of law opposes both sovereign despotism and the police state

Evidence

First, it is defined in opposition to despotism understood as a system that makes the particular or general will of the sovereign the principle of the obligation of each and all with regard to the public authorities. Despotism is that which identifies the obligatory character and form of the injunctions of the public authoritywith-the sovereign’s will. … Second, the Rule of law is also opposed to something different from despotism, and this is the Poliistaat,the police state. The police state is different from despotism, although concretely they overlap, or aspects of them overlap. What is understood by police state, by Poliistaat?It is a system in which there is no difference of kind, origin, validity, and consequently of effect, between, on the one hand, the general and permanent prescriptions of the public authorities-roughly, if you like, what we will call the law-and, on the other hand, the conjunctural, temporary, local, and individual decisions of these same public authorities-if you like, the level of rules and regulations. The police state establishes an administrative continuum that, from the general law to the particular measure, makes the public authorities and the injunctions they give one * M. — Michel Foucault, The Birth of Biopolitics, 916

Categorization

• DEFINE: Foucault’s typology: despotism collapses law into sovereign will; the police state flattens laws and measures into one administrative continuum.
• XREF: connects to: The despotism analogy for totalitarian police applies only in early rule; Sovereign power makes principles rather than obeying them; The Rule of law separates universal laws from particular administrative measures — Michel Foucault, The Birth of Biopolitics: Lectures at…, 910 (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• The despotism analogy for totalitarian police applies only in early rule #complicates (0.78)
• Mystified arbitrary power becomes immune to legal restraint #corroborates (0.78) — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 628
• Sovereign power makes principles rather than obeying them #corroborates (0.75)
• A law binds only because sovereign will chose to be bound by it #contradicts (0.75) — Wael Hallaq, Restating Orientalism, 197
• Narrow concepts of legal validity fail to prevent official abuse of power #qualifies (0.75) — HLA Hart, The Concept of Law (Clarendon Law…, 502
• The Rule of law separates universal laws from particular administrative measures #expands (0.72) — Michel Foucault, The Birth of Biopolitics, 910
• The rule of law is selectively enforced on racial groups framed as threats #exemplifies (0.72) — Junaid Rana, Terrifying Muslims, 914