Eyes on the Money: How Realist Economic Policy Facilitates the Modern Surveillance State in the USA and the PRC

Abstract

This paper examines the manner in which the United States of America and the People’s Republic of China, as the world’s leading economic superpowers, pursue a generally realist international relations approach to maintaining and securing their bases of economic power, and how this purpose translates into the development and proliferation of Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) camera networks in major cities as a means of protecting those cities as economic hubs crucial to the national economy. Two research questions guide the paper. First, how does each state demonstrate realist policies in the process of securing economic centers and the overall protection of its economy? Second, how does the use of CCTV contribute to the security and functionality of major economic centers in each state? Through a case comparison, the study examines the two countries on the bases of differences in governmental ideological orientation, justification of continued government-operated CCTV proliferation, and likelihood of altering that proliferation by civic means, ultimately concluding that as the international system retains its competitive atmosphere, surveillance state policies will continue to be the norm as national government purpose to maintain bases of global power.