The legitimacy of a state’s monopoly on the use of force determines the stability of the state and its social compact. A state’s security institutions, such as the police and military, and the type of force they use must fall under legitimate guidelines and laws. Institutional checks and balances on the state’s monopoly on the use of force are a critical demonstration of the state’s own accountability to the rule of law. State security is a balancing act, where on one end extreme centralization of power may lead to authoritarian uses of violence outside of the law, while on the other, losing a monopoly on force greatly delegitimizes the state and often leads to violent struggles between non-state actors and parallel institutions.