Authors: Lipset
Summary: In about 2100 words, this entry defines police power, discusses its origins and changing meanings, analyzes police power in democratic societies, and explores some threats presented by police power to democracies.
The entry defines police power as a state power through which formal conduct rules are enforced by legally applied or threatened coercion. The term 'police' derives from polity, which referred to a political body's governmental form. As the geopolitical face of the world changed, so did the meaning of police power. During the fifteenth century, police power was very broad and referred to governmental interest in life, health and property. By the early eighteenth century, states used their police powers more to preserve domestic security and enforce national boundaries. From there, the police power has expanded to its contemporary significance.
The police power varies greatly between democratic and nondemocratic states. In democratic states, the police power is limited by the rule of law, most significantly including due process considerations. A careful balance must be maintained between individual liberty and collective security. In nondemocratic states, none of these requirements apply because the police power is wielded by a powerful leader or party and not accountable in any meaningful way to the citizens. The entry looks closely at the police power in a variety of different systems, and also explores community policing, which became popular in the United States after 1980.
In its concluding section, the entry analyzes threats to democratic societies posed by states' police powers. New technologies and the more invasive surveillance opportunities they present are just one of a variety of potentially serious threats to democracy. Democratic societies must carefully balance police efficiency and individual protection from undue governmental interference. One of democracy's paradoxes is its simultaneous need for protection by and from the police.