Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Introduction

Police Abuse in Contemporary Democracies

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Police Abuse in Contemporary Democracies

Abstract

In this chapter, the editors establish the challenge that police abuse presents for our understanding of democracy. They argue that including police abuse in our study of democracy contributes to a more robust conceptual and structural understanding of its key dimensions. The chapter defines police abuse, which overlaps with police violence and police repression. It then briefly reviews the manner in which the dominant literature in political science addresses the concept of democracy, its limitations, and the challenge posed by the growing literature on the “decline of democracy.” The chapter offers a way to rethink this challenge by forefronting the importance of police abuse to three key components of democracy: citizenship, accountability, and socioeconomic (in)equality. These concepts structure the organization of chapters that follow.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
eBook
USD 16.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 89.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 119.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Andreas, Peter, and Richard Price. 2001. “From War Fighting to Crime Fighting: Transforming the American National Security State.” International Studies Review 3 (3): 31–52.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Arnold, Kathleen. 2007. “Enemy Invaders! Mexican Immigrants and U.S. Wars Against Them.” Borderlands 6 (3). http://www.borderlands.net.au/vol6no3_2007/arnold_invaders.htm.

  • Bayley, David H. 2006. Changing the Guard: Developing Democratic Police Abroad. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beetham, David. 1999. Democracy and Human Rights. Cambridge: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bellamy, Richard. 2008. Citizenship: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Benhabib, Seyla. 2004. The Rights of Others. Aliens, Residents, and Citizens. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bermeo, Nancy. 2016. “On Democratic Backsliding.” Journal of Democracy 27 (1): 5–19.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bobbio, Norberto. 1996. Left and Right: The Significance of a Political Distinction. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bonner, Michelle D. 2014. Policing Protest in Argentina and Chile. Boulder, CO: First Forum (Lynne Rienner).

    Google Scholar 

  • Chan, Janet. 1996. “Changing Police Culture.” British Journal of Criminology 36 (1): 109–34.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Clark, Rob. 2014. “A Tale of Two Trends: Democracy and Human Rights, 1981–2010.” Journal of Human Rights 13 (4): 395–413.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Comaroff, John L., and Jean Comaroff. 2006. “Law and Disorder in the Postcolony: An Introduction.” In Law and Disorder in the Postcolony, edited by Jean Comaroff and John L. Comaroff, 1–56. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cooley, Alexander. 2015. “Countering Democratic Norms.” Journal of Democracy 26 (3): 49–63.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Coppedge, Michael, John Gerring, Staffan I. Lindberg, Svend-Erik Skaaning, Jan Teorell, David Altman, Michael Bernhard, M. Steven Fish, Adam Glynn, Allen Hicken, Carl Henrik Knutsen, Kyle L. Marquardt, Kelly McMann, Valeriya Mechkova, Pamela Paxton, Daniel Pemstein, Laura Saxer, Brigitte Seim, Rachel Sigman, and Jeffrey Staton. 2017. “V-Dem Codebook v7.1.” Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) Project.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dahl, Robert A. 1971. Polyarchy: Participation and Opposition. New Haven: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dahl, Robert A. 1990. After the Revolution? Authority in a Good Society. New Haven: Yale University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Daleiden, J. Robert. 2006. “A Clumsy Dance: The Political Economy of American Police and Policing.” Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies and Management 29 (4): 602–24.

    Google Scholar 

  • della Porta, Donatella. 1998. “Police Knowledge and Protest Policing: Some Reflections on the Italian Case.” In Policing Protest: The Control of Mass Demonstrations in Western Democracies, edited by Donatella della Porta and Herbert Reiter, 228–52. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Diamond, Larry. 1997. “Is the Third Wave of Democratization Over? An Empirical Assessment.” Working Paper #236, Helen Kellog Institute, March.

    Google Scholar 

  • Diamond, Larry. 2015. “Facing Up to the Democratic Recession.” Journal of Democracy 26 (1): 141–55.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dubber, Markus Dirk. 2005. The Police Power: Patriarchy and the Foundations of American Government. New York: Columbia University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Foucault, Michel. 1977. Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. New York: Vintage Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fukuyama, Francis. 2015. “Why Is Democracy Performing So Poorly?” Journal of Democracy 26 (1): 11–20.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hall, Stuart, Chas Critcher, Tony Jefferson, John Clarke, and Brian Roberts. 1978. Policing the Crisis: Mugging, the State, and Law and Order. London: MacMillan.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Hinton, Mercedes S., and Tim Newburn, eds. 2009. Policing Developing Democracies. London and New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hunter, Virginia J. 1994. Policing Athens: Social Control in the Attic Lawsuits: 420–320 B.C. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Huntington, Samuel P. 1996. “Democracy’s Third Wave.” In The Global Resurgence of Democracy (2nd edition), edited by Larry Diamond and Marc F. Plattner, 3–25. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Isaac, Jeffery C. 2015. “The American Politics of Policing and Incarceration.” Perspectives on Politics 13 (3): 609–16.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jones, Trevor, Tim Newburn, and David J. Smith. 1994. Democracy and Policing. London: Policy Studies Institute.

    Google Scholar 

  • Krastev, Ivan. 2016. “Liberalism’s Failure to Deliver.” Journal of Democracy 27 (1): 35–38.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kymlicka, Will. 1995. Multicultural Citizenship: A Liberal Theory of Minority Rights. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Levitsky, Steven, and Lucan Way. 2002. “The Rise of Competitive Authoritarianism.” Journal of Democracy 13 (2): 51–66.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Levitsky, Steven, and Lucan Way. 2015. “The Myth of Democratic Recession.” Journal of Democracy 26 (1): 45–58.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Linz, Juan J., and Alfred Stepan. 1996. Problems of Democratic Transition and Consolidation: Southern Europe, South America, and Post-communist Europe. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lipsky, Michael. 1980. Street-Level Bureaucracy: Dilemmas of the Individual in Public Service. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marenin, Otwin. 1985. “Police Performance and State Rule: Control and Autonomy in the Exercise of Coercion.” Comparative Politics 18 (1): 101–22.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Marenin, Otwin. 1996. “Policing Change, Changing Police: Some Thematic Questions.” In Policing Change, Changing Police: International Perspectives, edited by Otwin Marenin. New York: Garland Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • McCoy, Alfred W. 2009. Policing America’s Empire: The United States, the Philippines, and the Rise of the Surveillance State. Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • McFaul, Michael. 2004. “Democracy Promotion as a World Value.” The Washington Quarterly 28 (1): 147–63.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McSherry, Patrice. 1997. Incomplete Transition: Military Power and Democracy in Argentina. New York: St. Martin’s Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Møller, Jørgen, and Svend-Erik Skaaning. 2013. “Autocracies, Democracies, and the Violation of Civil Liberties.” Democratization 20 (1): 82–106.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Muir Jr., William Ker. 1977. Police, Streetcorner Politicians. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Munck, Gerardo. 2007. “The Study of Politics and Democracy: Touchstones of a Research Agenda.” In Regimes and Democracy in Latin America. Theories and Methods, edited by Gerardo Munck, 25–37. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Munck, Gerardo. 2009. Measuring Democracy: A Bridge between Scholarship and Politics. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders. 1968. Report of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders. Washington, DC: The US Government Printing Office.

    Google Scholar 

  • Neocleous, Mark. 1998. “Policing and Pin Making: Adam Smith, Police and the State of Prosperity.” Policing and Society 8: 425–49.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Neocleous, Mark. 2000. The Fabrication of Social Order: A Critical Theory of Police Power. Cambridge: Pluto Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • O’Donnell, Guillermo. 1994. “Delegative Democracy.” Journal of Democracy 5 (1): 55–69.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • O’Donnell, Guillermo. 1999. “Horizontal Accountability in New Democracies.” In The Self-Restraining State: Power and Accountability in New Democracies, edited by Andreas Schedler, Larry Diamond, and Marc F. Plattner, 29–51. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pateman, Carole. 1970. Participation and Democratic Theory. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Peruzzotti, Enrique, and Catalina Smulovitz. 2006. Enforcing the Rule of Law: Social Accountability in the New Latin American Democracies. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Pinheiro, Paulo Sérgio. 1999. “The Rule of Law and the Underprivileged in Latin America: Introduction.” In The (Un)Rule of Law and the Underprivileged in Latin America, edited by Juan E. Méndez, Guillermo O’Donnell, and Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro, 1–8. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Plattner, Marc F. 2015. “Is Democracy in Decline?” Journal of Democracy 26 (1): 5–10.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Puddington, Arch. 2015. Discarding Democracy: A Return to the Iron Fist. Washington, DC: Freedom House. https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world-2015/discarding-democracy-return-iron-fist.

  • Robinson, William I. 1996. “Globalization, the World System, and ‘Democracy Promotion’ in US Foreign Policy.” Theory and Society 25 (5): 615–65.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schmitter, Philippe C., and Terry Lynn Karl. 1991. “What Democracy Is … And Is Not.” Journal of Democracy 2 (3): 75–88.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schumpeter, Joseph A. 1943. Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy. London: George Allen & Unwin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schwartzberg, Melissa. 2014. “Democracy.” In The Encyclopedia of Political Thought, edited by Michael T. Gibbons, 851–62. Malden, MA: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sklansky, David Alan. 2008. Democracy and the Police. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thomas, Martin. 2008. Empires of Intelligence: Security Services and Colonial Disorder after 1914. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ungar, Mark. 2011. Policing Democracy: Overcoming Obstacles to Citizen Security in Latin America. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Waddington, P.A.J. 1998. “Controlling Protest in Contemporary, Historical and Comparative Perspective.” In Policing Protest: The Control of Mass Demonstrations in Western Democracies, edited by Donatella della Porta and Herbert Reiter, 117–40. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Waddington, P.A.J. 1999. “Police (Canteen) Sub-culture. An Appreciation.” British Journal of Criminology 39 (2): 287–309.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Williams, Randall. 2003. “A State of Permanent Exception: The Birth of Modern Policing in Colonial Capitalism.” Interventions International Journal of Postcolonial Studies 5 (3): 322–44.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada

    Michelle D. Bonner

  2. University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada

    Michael Kempa

  3. St. Bonaventure University, St. Bonaventure, NY, USA

    Mary Rose Kubal

  4. Union College, Schenectady, NY, USA

    Guillermina Seri

Authors
  1. Michelle D. Bonner
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Michael Kempa
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Mary Rose Kubal
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Guillermina Seri
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

    Michelle D. Bonner

  2. Union College, Schenectady, New York, USA

    Guillermina Seri

  3. St. Bonaventure University, St. Bonaventure, New York, USA

    Mary Rose Kubal

  4. University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

    Michael Kempa

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2018 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Bonner, M.D., Kempa, M., Kubal, M.R., Seri, G. (2018). Introduction. In: Bonner, M., Seri, G., Kubal, M., Kempa, M. (eds) Police Abuse in Contemporary Democracies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-72883-4_1

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation