Regime Type and Beyond
The Transformation of Police in Asia

Analyses the politics of policing in a range of regime types across East and Southeast Asia.

Weitseng Chen (Edited by), Hualing Fu (Edited by)

9781316517413, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 8 June 2023

400 pages
23.5 x 15.8 x 2.8 cm, 0.72 kg

'In exploring the complex commonalities and divergences of policing in Asia, Chen and Fu have produced the very best kind of edited volume. It brings together a range of great scholars on a novel question, and collectively moves our knowledge forward. Highly recommended!' Tom Ginsburg, Leo Spitz Distinguished Service Professor of International Law, Ludwig and Hilde Wolf Research Scholar, Professor of Political Science, The University of Chicago

Policing is legitimized in different ways in authoritarian and democratic states. In East and Southeast Asia, different regime types to a greater or lesser extent determine the power of the police and their complex relationship with the rule of law. This volume examines the evolution of the police as a key political institution from a historical perspective and offers comparative insights into the potential of democratic policing and conversely the resilience of authoritarian policing in Asia. The case studies focus on eight jurisdictions: Singapore, Thailand, Hong Kong, Vietnam, China, Taiwan, Japan and South Korea. The theoretical chapters analyse and explain the links between policing and society, the politics of policing and recent police reforms. This volume fills a gap in the literature by exploring the nature of authoritarian policing and how it has transformed and developed the rule of law throughout East and Southeast Asia.

Part I. Framework: 1. Mapping the authoritarian and democratic divide: the transformation of policing in East Asia Hualing Fu and Weitseng Chen
2. Discipline or democracy: the endogeneity of police accountability Jedidiah Kroncke
Part II. Authoritarian Policing: Past and Present: 3. High policing and human rights lawyering in China Hualing Fu
4. Transformation in policing minor offending in China Sarah Biddulph
5. From revolutions to COVID-19: policing narratives in Vietnam Trang (Mae) Nguyen
6. Unrestrained but limited: Policing vagrancy in authoritarian Seoul Erik Mobrand
Part III. Democratic Transition and Authoritarian Resilience: 7. Public order, social drama, and legitimate force: policing popular uprisings in Hong Kong and Taiwan, 2014 Jeffrey T. Martin
8. Adaptive authoritarian policing: a journey from China and Japan to Taiwan Weitseng Chen
9. Organizational legacies of authoritarian police in post-war Japan Koichi Nakano
10. Authoritarian policing and democratization: the case of Thailand Eugénie Mérieau
Part IV. The Singapore and Hong Kong Exceptions: 11. Democratic policing in an authoritarian state?: a historical look at Singapore Kevin YL Tan
12. Empires collaborate: geopolitics of colonial policing in Hong Kong (1880s–1970s) Michael Ng
13. The end of soft-style protest policing in a hybrid regime: evidence from Hong Kong Peng Wang, Paul Joosse and Lok Lee Cho
Part V. Conclusion: 14. Authoritarian police and policing East Asia: scope, patterns, and paradoxes Jacques deLisle
Index.

Subject Areas: Responsibility of states & other entities [LBBV], Public international law [LBB], International law [LB], Law [L]