The Politics of Police Reform: Society against the State in Post-Soviet Countries
The Politics of Police Reform: Society against the State in Post-Soviet Countries
Assistant Professor, Department of Regional and Analytical Studies
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Abstract
What does it take to reform a post-Soviet police force? Across the region, the countries inherited remarkably similar police forces with identical structures, chains of command, and politicized relationships with the political elite. Centralized in control but decentralized in their reach, the police remain one of the least reformed post-communist institutions. As a powerful state organ, the Soviet-style militarized police have resisted change despite democratic transformations in the overall political context, including rounds of competitive elections and growing civil society. This book explores the conditions in which a meaningful transformation of the police is likely to succeed and when it will fail. Based on the analysis of five post-Soviet countries (Ukraine, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, and Tajikistan) that have officially embarked on police reform efforts, the book examines various pathways to transforming how the state relates to society through policing. It develops a new understanding of both police and police reform. Departing from the conventional interpretation of the police as merely an institution of coercion, this study defines it as a medium for state-society consensus on the limits of the state’s legitimate use of violence. Police are, according to a common Russian saying, a “mirror of society”—serving as a counterweight to its complexity. Police reform, in turn, is a process of consensus-building on the rationale of the use of violence through discussions, debates, media, and advocacy.
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Front Matter
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1
A Mirror of Society: Police in Post-Soviet Countries
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2
Transformative Violence and Mobilization
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Components of Police Reform: Transformative Violence and Preexisting Dissent Infrastructure in Urban Areas
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4
Georgia: Refurbishment versus Reform
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Kyrgyzstan: Political Space Opens, Then Closes
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Ukraine’s Reformists and Their Rivals
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Rural Violence and Reassertion of State Control in Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan
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Rural Violence and Expansion of Policing in Kazakhstan and Tajikistan
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A Comparative Perspective: Transformative Violence around the World
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Conclusions: Transforming Post-Soviet Police
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End Matter
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