An enemy of the state is a person accused of certain crimes against the state, such as treason. In the sociological field, crime is the breach of a rule or Law for which some governing authority or force may ultimately prescribe a Punishment A state is a political association with effective Sovereignty over a geographic Area and representing a Population. In Law, treason is the Crime that covers some of the more serious acts of disloyalty to one's sovereign or Nation. Describing individuals in this way is sometimes a manifestation of political repression. Political repression is the Persecution of an individual or group for political reasons particularly for the purpose of restricting or preventing their ability to take part For example, an authoritarian regime may purport to maintain national security by describing social or political dissidents as "enemies of the state". Authoritarianism describes a Form of government characterized by an emphasis on the Authority of the State in a republic or union National security is the entire scope of measures undertaken by the Governments of Nation-states in providing assurance of national Sovereignty A dissident, broadly defined is a person who actively challenges an established doctrine policy or institution In other cases, the individual in question may have legitimately endangered the country and/or its population. For example, a double agent selling military or intelligence secrets could undermine a nation's security, and could therefore be considered an enemy not of just a person or entity within a state, but the state itself and all entities therein.

• In the case of Ancient Rome, see "Proscription". Ancient Rome was a Civilization that grew out of a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 10th century BC Not to be confused with prescription and other meanings of proscription.
• In the Soviet Union during the period of Stalinism, the corresponding term was Enemy of the people. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR was a constitutionally Socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991 Stalinism is the political regime named after Joseph Stalin, leader of the Soviet Union from 1929–1953 The term enemy of the people is a fluid designation of political or class opponents of the group using the term
• For a prominent example in fiction, see Emmanuel Goldstein. Emmanuel Goldstein is a key character in George Orwell 's Novel Nineteen Eighty-Four.
• An Enemy of the State (ISBN 1-57392-809-7) is the title of a book about Murray Rothbard by Justin Raimondo. Murray Newton Rothbard (March 2 1926 – January 7 1995 was an American economist of the Austrian School who helped define modern Libertarianism Justin Raimondo (born Dennis Raimondo on November 18, 1951) is a Paleoconservative / libertarian American Author

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