Why people fear the state?

Pratap Bhanu Mehta review on Arun Shourie book

“why people fear the state. The rhetorical use of victims’ rights cannot obviate the fact that a state is a state only if it has a moral identity. The so-called “weak laws” have become a self-serving alibi for larger institutional failures of the state. There is also considerable comparative evidence of how draconian security laws add little to law-enforcement capability.

……..state is hoist on its own petard because it often overestimates the power of power.”