Militarized Policing and Regime Survival

• In Event: Conflict and Constraints: New Insights from African Politics

Abstract

How and when did militarized policing spread internationally? And how does it affect the survival of political regimes? Drawing upon a new data set of militarized policing in a global sample, 1946-2020, as well as archival material on international police assistance programs, I show that there is wide variation in the extent, timing, and forms of police militarization that states adopted. While in many circumstances, militarized policing helped states address threats from rebel groups more successfully, it also made police-military splits more likely in the face of mass protests and military coups. As a result, while militarized policing was intended to build state capacity, it also paradoxically weakened regimes in important ways. This article contributes to recent efforts to expand research on the variety of actors in state security sectors, and helps identify the conditions under which military and police forces have complementary versus competing interests. The findings have implications for our understanding of civil-military relations and the durability of both democratic and authoritarian regimes.

Author

• Erica Susanne De Bruin, Hamilton College