Police Abuse in Contemporary Democracies

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, 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

1. Introduction: Police Abuse in Contemporary DemocraciesMichelle D. Bonner, Michael Kempa, Mary Rose Kubal, and Guillermina Seri

Part I: Citizenship

2. Police Abuse and the Racialized Boundaries of Citizenship in FranceCathy Lisa Schneider

3. Police as State: Governing Citizenship through ViolenceGuillermina Seri and Jinee Lokaneeta

4. Development of the Concept of "Political Profiling": Citizenship and Police Repression of Protest in QuebecFrancis Dupuis-Déri

Part II: Accountability

5. Holding Police Abuse to Account: The Challenge of Institutional Legitimacy, a Chilean Case StudyMichelle D. Bonner

6. Police Abuse and Democratic Accountability: Agonistic Surveillance of the Administrative StateRosa Squillacote and Leonard Feldman

7. Protest and Police Abuse: Racial Limits on Perceived AccountabilityChristian 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 DemocracyMarlea Clarke

9. Policing as Pacification: Postcolonial Legacies, Transnational Connections, and the Militarization of Urban Security in Democratic BrazilMarkus-Michael Müller

Part IV: Conclusion

10. Conclusion: Rethinking Police Abuse in Contemporary Democracies
Michelle D. Bonner