City-Coups: How American Police Forces Shape City Governments

• In Event: Power and Politics in Urban Space

Abstract

Drawing from comparative politics research on military involvement in civilian politics, we present a theory about the effects of police militarization in America on the relationship between police forces and city governments' elected and administrative officials. Using evidence from news reports and scholarly studies, we show that police forces may be influencing and/or displacing elected and administrative officials in city governments because police forces have: (a) access to advanced weapons and training from the federal government, (b) independent sources of funding contingent on extraction from select populations as opposed to tax revenues, (c) support from locally dominant economic and racial groups, and (d) are politicized via unions. We subsequently present research methods and avenues through which a research program can be developed.

Authors

• Vasabjit Banerjee, Mississippi State University

• Charley Ellen Willison, Cornell University