Policing Protest

The Control of Mass Demonstrations in Western Democracies

1998

Donatella della Porta and Herbert Reiter, editors
Afterword by Gary T. Marx

The first international examination of how police respond to political protests.

The only resource to examine police interventions cross-nationally, this collection analyzes a wide array of policing styles. Focusing on Italy, France, Germany, Great Britain, Switzerland, Spain, the United States, and South Africa, the contributors look at cultures and political power to examine the methods and the consequences of policing protest.

Contributors: Rocco De Biasi, Olivier Fillieule, Oscar Jaime-Jiménez, Fabien Jobard, Hanspeter Kriesi,Gary T. Marx, John McCarthy, Clark McPhail, Fernando Reinares, Robert Reiner, David Schweingruber, P. A. J. Waddington, Martin Winter, and Dominique Wisler.

An analytically innovative work. This is a heartening tome in the sense that it points to the increasingly democratic nature of police control of political demonstrations in Western democracies.

Great Plains Sociologist

The way in which police handle political demonstrations is always potentially controversial. In contemporary democracies, police departments have two different, often conflicting aims: keeping the peace and defending citizens’ right to protest. This collection, the only resource to examine police interventions cross-nationally, analyzes a wide array of policing styles. The contributors look at cultures and political power to examine the methods, the trends and cycles, and the consequences of policing protest.

Focusing on Italy, France, Germany, Great Britain, Switzerland, Spain, the United States, and South Africa, the contributors explore the various police strategies of coercion, negotiation, and information surveillance. They discuss protest policing in relation to specific countries’ governments and consider public opinion, media, and the police’s perception of reality to illustrate the reciprocal ways in which police and protest are defined. Moreover, this volume considers the profound changes from the forceful 1960s to a “softer” 1990s, including the consequences of this move.

Comparative and innovative, Policing Protest highlights the crucial influences of demonstration interventions and lends greater understanding to the study of social movements and their relationship to the state.

Contributors: Rocco De Biasi, U of Genoa; Olivier Fillieule, Institute of Political Science, Paris; Oscar Jaime-Jiménez, Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia, Madrid; Fabien Jobard, U of Rouen, France; Hanspeter Kriesi, U of Geneva; Gary T. Marx, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and U of Colorado, Boulder; John McCarthy, Catholic U of America; Clark McPhail, U of Illinois; Fernando Reinares, Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia, Madrid; Robert Reiner, London School of Economics; David Schweingruber; P. A. J. Waddington, U of Reading, UK; Martin Winter, U of Halle, Germany; Dominique Wisler, U of Geneva.

Donatella della Porta is professor of political science at the University of Florence. Herbert Reiter is a researcher in history at the University of Halle in Germany.

An analytically innovative work. This is a heartening tome in the sense that it points to the increasingly democratic nature of police control of political demonstrations in Western democracies.

Great Plains Sociologist

Della Porta and Reiter have compiled an excellent volume of public order policing studies across ‘established’ and ‘young’ western democratic states. The book provides an important, relevant and useful insight into the rationale of protest policing change and that of police policy decision-making.

Ethnic Conflict Research Digest

Policing Protest documents important changes and raises important issues. I recommend it for scholars of social movements and for students of policing. Both will learn about their respective areas and, especially, the intersection of these areas when cops work demonstrations in postindustrial democracies.

Contemporary Sociology

Contents

Introduction

The Policing of Protest in Western Democracies Donatella della Porta and Herbert Reiter

Part I. Policing Protest in Established Democracies

1. Policing, Protest, and Disorder in Britain Robert Reiner
2. Policing Protest in the United States: 1960-1995 Clark McPhail, David Schweingruber, and John McCarthy
3. The Policing of Protest in France: Toward a Model of Protest Policing Olivier Fillieule and Fabien Jobard
4. Public Order, Protest Cycles, and Political Process: Two Swiss Cities Compared Dominique Wisler and Hanspeter Kriesi
5. Controlling Protest in Contemporary Historical and Comparative Perspective P. A. J. Waddington

Part II. Policing Protest in Young Democracies

6. Police and Public Order in Italy, 1944-1948: The Case of Florence Herbert Reiter
7. The Policing of Mass Demonstrations in Spain: From Dictatorship to Democracy Oscar Jaime-Jimenez and Fernando Reinares
8. Police Philosophy and Protest Policing in the Federal Republic of Germany, 1960-1990 Martin Winter
9. The Policing of Hooliganism in Italy Rocco De Biasi
10. Police Knowledge and Protest Policing: Some Reflections on the Italian Case Donatella della Porta

Afterword
Some Reflections on the Democratic Policing of Demonstrations Gary T. Marx
Bibliography
Contributors
Index