Political Authority, Social Control and Public Policy

Political movements and citizens across the globe are increasingly challenging the traditional ways in which political authorities and governing bodies establish and maintain social control. This edited collection examines the intersections of social control, political authority and public policy. Each chapter provides an important insight into the key elements needed to understand the role of governance in establishing and maintaining social control through law and public policymaking. Close attention is paid to the roles of surveillance and dissent as tools for both establishing and disrupting the social control of political institutions.This collection examines the vast implications of increased participation in governance by citizens through dissent, revealing the ways in which this represents both a disruption of social control and a mechanism for increased accountability through surveillance and media.Through its examination of issues such as police militarization, police legitimacy, religion and the state, immigration, mental health policy, privacy and surveillance, and mass media and social control in a post-truth environment, this collection will prove invaluable for researchers, policy makers and practitioners alike.

“Written by political science, criminal justice, and other scholars from the US, the 15 chapters in this volume examine the role of political authorities in maintaining social control, focusing on the major mechanisms of social control, their influence on public policy, and the increasing disruption of social control through surveillance, protest, and mass media. They explore how the apparatuses of social control function through discourse; the role of the police in social control, including police militarization in the US and its effects on communities of color, police responses and policing related to protest management in communities of color, state and local governments' social control of neighborhoods, the governmental control of public spaces, state support for or hostility toward religion in the US and Myanmar, and community policing as a means to increase police legitimacy, strengthen community resilience, and promote prosocial interactions between officers and residents; and social control through public policy, including the implementation of border controls and immigration policies in the US, social control for the mentally ill, and social control of registered sex offenders. Other essays address the role of surveillance, political violence, and mass media to establish or disrupt the social control of political institutions, including privacy rights and democracy, security and crime controls, government use of social control to address political violence and dissent, the need to disrupt social control when it promotes the oppression of individuals or groups, the role of the mass media in the maintenance of social control and policy formulation and implementation in the Trump political era, and the impact of police technology adoption on social control, police accountability, and police legitimacy.”

-- Annotation ©2019 (protoview.com)

Cara E. Rabe-Hemp is Professor in the Department of Criminal Justice Sciences at Illinois State University, USA. She has won several University and college Research Awards and has co-edited and authored books and peer-reviewed articles in the areas of policing and public policy. Nancy S. Lind is Professor of Politics and Government at Illinois State University USA, where she has taught for over 30 years. Her specialties are Public Administration and Policy and American Politics.

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