(Here be spoilers)
Fred punches me in the face and walks away. Do I: A -report Fred to the police and hope he is arrested for assault- or B -ask my my masked vigilante friend to beat him up? How one answers that question has important implications for the role of the state in your life. To explain why, and how superheroes fit into all of this, you have to understand the idea of a "Monopoly on Force"
Nope, not that (Via)
German sociologist Max Weber coined the phrase as a definition for the modern state. Basically something is considered a "state" if it can exercise legitimate undisputed force over a geographic territory, and those people living in that territory have somehow "agreed" to that use of force, (hence its legitimacy). For example: Let's say I am traveling through the beautiful state of Vermont when suddenly I ambushed by a group of militia who say are detaining me under "the authority of the Second Vermont Republic!" Now, while traveling through Vermont, I am agreeing to abide the laws of the state of Vermont, not these people. They have no legitimate power, no geographic control, no one recognizes them. They are not a state. In contrast, if the feds ever discover the massive interstate Ponzi scheme i've been running, i'm totally screwed. People recognize the legitimacy of the United States.
Weber was working during the beginning of the 20th century, but the idea of the state having a monopoly on force goes much further back. As political science professor Corey Robin explains, Thomas Hobbes, writing in the 17th century had similar ideas.
Wrong Again (Via)
Hobbes, a probable atheist, was eager to defend the absolute authority of the King of England without invoking divine right. To do so he argued that people would never to be able to agree on who and what posed a big threat, "people were "nasty, brutish and short". Therefore the only reasonable thing to do was outsource the threat assessment to someone else, the so called "Leviathan", and obey it absolutely. Now, obviously we in the US aren't governed the Leviathan, but we do take some of our ideas from Hobbes. Take for example the Foreign Terrorist Watch-List, the only reason I know half those names is that i'm a politics nerd. Most people have no idea, but they trust the government to keep them safe. Its the same with police, we may not know all the laws, but we trust the police to enforce them effectively.
Or at least we should.
In Daredevil and Jessica Jones the police are unable to enforce the laws effectively. In Daredevil its because Wilson Fisk has bought them. In Jessica Jones its in part because of Kilgrave's powers, but also because they don't take her account seriously (In the final battle Kilgrave's minions were literally police officers.) If we look at this police force through a Hobbesian lens we see it as a failure, police were granted the legitimacy of force but didn't provide enough justice for the people, therefore vigilantes were allowed to operate, and the state lost its monopoly. Unfortunately this echoes real life, where police corruption was, and is a major concern. And officers really do use false reasoning to unfairly dismiss rape claims.
And that's where Jessica Jones and Daredevil really shine. They reflect real world issues, and bring up the questions of vigilantism and what it means for a society, where the MCU writ large dodges around the issue. In the films all of our heroes eventually become tied into a state-like unit, S.H.I.E.L.D. that has a force monopoly. Instead of being vigilantes they are more like contractors. With the exception of Winter Solider and The Incredible Hulk all of the MCU films occupy a space where at least one type of organization is considered "the good guys" and who should be exercising authority. In Daredevil the Punisher is more honest then the D.A. In Jessica Jones your own family is more helpful then the cops in getting rid of the bad guy.
Daredevil and Jessica Jones vault above everyone else because they are willing to ask those questions, be relevant, and probe deeply into our own society, like any great work of genre fiction should.
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