Authoritarian Police in Democracy
Contested Security in Latin America

Explains the persistence of violent, unaccountable policing in democratic contexts.

Yanilda María González (Author)

9781108830393, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 12 November 2020

250 pages
15 x 23 x 3 cm, 0.75 kg

'… this is a good book. González offers critical and useful insights into the so-called hard problem of police reform. … The book is not just about the demerits and problematic implications of authoritarian policing but also about how police reforms, as political processes, are either enacted or not. To have shown the path is, in my opinion, the principal achievement of the book. As police reform efforts and debates are, in my view, destined to continue in the region, González's book is by default destined to be a reference in these debates.' Carlos Vilalta, American Journal of Sociology

In countries around the world, from the United States to the Philippines to Chile, police forces are at the center of social unrest and debates about democracy and rule of law. This book examines the persistence of authoritarian policing in Latin America to explain why police violence and malfeasance remain pervasive decades after democratization. It also examines the conditions under which reform can occur. Drawing on rich comparative analysis and evidence from Brazil, Argentina, and Colombia, the book opens up the 'black box' of police bureaucracies to show how police forces exert power and cultivate relationships with politicians, as well as how social inequality impedes change. González shows that authoritarian policing persists not in spite of democracy but in part because of democratic processes and public demand. When societal preferences over the distribution of security and coercion are fragmented along existing social cleavages, politicians possess few incentives to enact reform.

1. Police: authoritarian enclaves in democratic states
2. Ordinary democratic politics and the challenge of police reform
Part I. Persistence: 3. Institutional persistence in São Paulo state: authoritarian policing by democratic demand
4. The endurance of the 'damned police' in Buenos Aires province
5. Policing in hard times: drug war, institutional decay, and the persistence of authoritarian coercion in Colombia
Part II. Reform: 6. 'New police', same as the old police: barriers to reform in São Paulo state
7. The social and political drivers of reform in Buenos Aires province and Colombia
8. Conclusion: inequality and the dissonance of policing and democracy.

Subject Areas: Human rights [JPVH], Political science & theory [JPA], Politics & government [JP], Crime & criminology [JKV], Sociology [JHB]