1. Introduction: Police Abuse in Contemporary Democracies
Michelle D. Bonner, Michael Kempa, Mary Rose Kubal, and Guillermina Seri
Part I: Citizenship
2. Police Abuse and the Racialized Boundaries of Citizenship in France
Cathy Lisa Schneider
3. Police as State: Governing Citizenship through Violence
Guillermina Seri and Jinee Lokaneeta
4. Development of the Concept of “Political Profiling”: Citizenship and Police Repression of Protest in Quebec
Francis Dupuis-Déri
Part II: Accountability
5. Holding Police Abuse to Account: The Challenge of Institutional Legitimacy, a Chilean Case Study
Michelle D. Bonner
6. Police Abuse and Democratic Accountability: Agonistic Surveillance of the Administrative State
Rosa Squillacote and Leonard Feldman
7. Protest and Police Abuse: Racial Limits on Perceived Accountability
Christian Davenport, Rose McDermott, and David Armstrong
Part III: Socioeconomic (In)Equality
8. Supporting the “Elite” Transition in South Africa: Police Abuse in a Violent Neoliberal Democracy
Marlea Clarke
9. Policing as Pacification: Postcolonial Legacies, Transnational Connections, and the Militarization of Urban Security in Democratic Brazil
Markus-Michael Müller
Part IV: Conclusion
10. Conclusion: Rethinking Police Abuse in Contemporary Democracies
Michelle D. Bonner
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.
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. The book reveals how integrating police abuse can contribute to a more robust study of democracy and government in general.
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.