CIAO DATE: 03/04

Postmodern Power and Transnational Policing: Democracy, the Constabulary Ethic and the Response to Global (In)Security

Abstract

This paper argues that democratic control of policing, transnational and otherwise, is problematic in the contemporary period because of the nature of the postmodern power system. It describes the parameters of the policing field and notes that its separate sectors have different ways of being accountable to different sets of interests. Further is describes the transnational policing regime as a global polycentric power system and argues that there is no point from which the policing field could be governed. The paper then describes policing at the 'hard edge of postmodernity' showing what is at stake. The paper advances a normative conception termed the 'constabulary ethic' and argues that this might provide a moral compass for the nascent transnational subculture of policing. The minimum social conditions necessary for the emergence of the constabulary ethic are described and the principles that provides its 'normative glue' are elucidated. The paper ends by citing some practical examples where something like the constabulary ethic has been achieved.

Full Text (PDF, 32 pages, 121 KB)