Police Power: Theory and History

As Egon Bittner once stated, the police are “at once the best known and the least understood” of the institutions of modern government. In this seminar students begin by reading introductions to theories of modern state power, and then turn to exploring how the police manifest this power at the local level. In the second half of the semester, we will read histories of police forces with special emphasis on the formation of the police in East Asia. We conclude by reviewing recent theories of the police for the twenty-first century. 3 hrs. sem.