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Policing African States - Toward a Critique

NCJ Number
90298
Journal
Comparative Politics Volume: 14 Issue: 4 Dated: (1982) Pages: 379-396
Author(s)
O Marenin
Date Published
1982
Length
18 pages
Annotation
The police in African nations differ from those in Western capitalist countries in that they are less professionalized, more dispersed, and are viewed negatively by the public.
Abstract
The patterns of interaction between the police and the nation are influenced by four factors: perceptions of the relationship between specific situations and ideological beliefs, the degree of professionalization of the force, their closeness in terms of social origins to the people they confront in the exercise of their power, and their assessment of the power of the nation to sanction them should they try to reject commands. Paradoxically, it appears that the stronger the State, the more autonomous the police will be; the weaker the State, the less autonomous the police. The African police seem to make a minimal contribution to the maintenance of general order compared with informal and traditional sanctioning processes or personal attempts to recover property. The police are not very visible in cities and are even less visible in rural areas, which tend not to be policed. They are often used to protect specific interests and to function largely during government ceremonies. Although police forces are always in an ambivalent position in that they are seen as necessary and are also disliked, police autonomy can be a protective mechanism which gives them power and makes them potential allies for all groups in society. To view the police as an entity which has no autonomy and which is totally created, shaped, and operated by the public is therefore misleading. Two tables and 54 reference notes are provided.