The Pros And Cons Of Public Order Policing

1275 Words6 Pages
Policing, like liberal democracy, is dialogical. It is a relation between representatives of a state authority and denizens of a political community. The nature of this relationship is fundamental to the effective and proper application of order maintenance resources. Its nurturance requires visible observance to norms, including adherence to the rule of law by both parties. Where either party is widely perceived to be out of step with requirements of a civil dialogue, the status of the relationship becomes parlous. Thus there is a burden on the part of authorities to seek the most limited intrusions against freedoms, even where there is a threat to public order. Accordingly, public order policing is defined as “the use of police authority…show more content…
The institutionalization of police in liberal democracies allows that there is a balancing act between multiple mandates (crime prevention, law enforcement, order maintenance) and authorities (the lower judiciary, the public constituency, the executive, epistemic authority or “best practice,” etc.). In the meantime, as pointed out by Arendt, the ideals of democracy are contradicted by the material needs of capital accumulation; capitalism pulls liberalism through its elites toward totalitarian practices (Arendt 1994, p. 282). In managing the gap between the ideals of democracy and the tendency toward authoritarian liberalism, police adapt practices that respond to this structural dilemma (Davenport 1995). Whilst struggling to bridge the widening gulf between social and economic winners and losers, they maintain in this dialogical enterprise the legacy of liberal democratic…show more content…
For half a century or more, analysts have drawn from psychology, political science, sociology, law and legal studies, and other fields to attempt to explain and to a lesser degree predict police and protestor conduct or action. Across divergent disciplinary traditions, analysts have queried sites of protest as exemplary of the condition and representations of government. In political science and sociology, international relations and behavioral science, social movement analysts have reviewed public order against such divergent factors as political opportunity structure, resource mobilization, securitization, incapacitation, and more. Legal studies scholars and criminologists have interrogated how law and legal instruments are designed and deployed in support of regulatory institutions that, by and large, attempt to broker the divide between the ideals of liberal democracy and the practical expediency of order maintenance and law enforcement. An offshoot is dedicated to understanding public order as it expresses features of policing under a common good under
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