Policies aimed at responding to the condition of urban underclasses are likely to become custodial in nature. Their effect will be to create a condition of custodial democracy in which the underclass as a substantial proportion of the population, neither convicted nor adjudged to be insane, will become wards of the state.
Traditionally in "democracies," police forces have been small and order has arisen from the spirit of citizenship. But under neoliberalism, abandonment of public services is depressing satisfaction, while the de-emphasis of nationalist ideology is undermining civic identity and voluntary compliance. The elite understands that, as living standards decline in once-prosperous nations, more economic suffering – and political discontent – are inevitable. Not surprisingly, then, police-state systems are growing, and an intense propaganda campaign is underway regarding crime, its causes, and cures. More police, longer sentences, and more prisons are the elite's answer to the question of public order.