Critical Theory of Police Power: The Fabrication of the Social Order

This book has been a powerful critique of police power, arguing for an expanded concept of police that can account for the range of institutions through which policing takes place. It connects the discretionary violence of the police to the wider administrative powers of the state and the dull compulsion of economic relations.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 240 pages
Publication date: 12 January 2021
Publisher: Verso Books

The concept of order, with its pervasive presence and political allure, demands a comprehensive understanding when coupled with the notion of police. Since its initial publication, this book has stood as a formidable and far-reaching critique of police power. Neocleous advocates for a broadened concept of police that can encompass the diverse range of institutions through which policing occurs. These institutions are not solely concerned with maintaining and reproducing order but also with its very creation, particularly the construction of a social order rooted in wage labor. By establishing the police power in relation to both capital and the state, at the very core of security politics, the book unfolds into an insightful exploration of how the state governs civil society and fabricates order through law and the ideology of crime. The discretionary violence exhibited by the police on the streets becomes intertwined with the broader administrative powers of the state, and the thud of the truncheon resonates with the dull compulsion of economic relations.

The concept of order, with its pervasive presence and political allure, demands a comprehensive understanding when coupled with the notion of police. Since its initial publication, this book has stood as a formidable and far-reaching critique of police power. Neocleous advocates for a broadened concept of police that can encompass the diverse range of institutions through which policing occurs. These institutions are not solely concerned with maintaining and reproducing order but also with its very creation, particularly the construction of a social order rooted in wage labor. By establishing the police power in relation to both capital and the state, at the very core of security politics, the book unfolds into an insightful exploration of how the state governs civil society and fabricates order through law and the ideology of crime. The discretionary violence exhibited by the police on the streets becomes intertwined with the broader administrative powers of the state, and the thud of the truncheon resonates with the dull compulsion of economic relations.

Weight: 282g
Dimension: 234 x 153 x 18 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781788735209