Police Abuse in Contemporary Democracies

This volume offers a much-needed analysis of police abuse and its implications for our understanding of democracy. Sometimes referred to as police violence or police repression, police abuse occurs in all democracies. It is not an exception or a stage of democratization. It is, this volume argues, a structural and conceptual dimension of extant democracies. The book draws our attention to how including the study of policing into our analyses strengthens our understanding of democracy, including the persistence of hybrid democracy and the decline of democracy. To this end, the book examines three key dimensions of democracy: citizenship, accountability, and socioeconomic (in)equality. Drawing from political theory, comparative politics, and political economy, the book explores cases from France, the US, India, Argentina, Chile, South Africa, Brazil, and Canada, and reveals how integrating police abuse can contribute to a more robust study of democracy and government in general.

Argues that police abuse challenges political scientists to rethink the concept of democracy Examines how political science has addressed democracy in its dominant literatures and the challenge the recent 'decline of democracy' poses to these conceptualizations Draws on case studies from countries spanning five continents, including the United States, France, Canada, India, Argentina, Chile, Brazil, and South Africa

Autorentext
Michelle D. Bonner is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Victoria, Canada.
Guillermina Seri is Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at Union College, USA.
Mary Rose Kubal is Associate Professor of Political Science at St. Bonaventure University, USA.
Michael Kempa is Associate Professor of Criminology at the University of Ottawa, Canada.

Inhalt

1. Introduction: Police Abuse in Contemporary Democracies.- 2. Police Abuse and the Racialized Boundaries of Citizenship in France.- 3. Police as State: Governing Citizenship through Violence.- 4. Development of the Concept of Political Profiling: Citizenship and Police Repression of Protest in Quebec.- 5. Holding Police Abuse to Account: The Challenge of Institutional Legitimacy, a Chilean Case Study.- 6. Police Abuse and Democratic Accountability: Agonistic Surveillance of the Administrative State.- 7. Protest and Police Abuse: Racial Limits on Perceived Accountability.- 8. Supporting the Elite Transition in South Africa: Police Abuse in a Violent Neoliberal Democracy.- 9. Policing as Pacification: Postcolonial Legacies, Transnational Connections, and the Militarization of Urban Security in Democratic Brazil.- 10. Conclusion: Rethinking Police Abuse in Contemporary Democracies.