Beschreibung
The issue of police reform in countries in transition from
state socialism toward more democratic forms of governance
has risen to practical prominence in recent years. The
collapse of the Soviet Union initiated fundamental changes
in aspirations, ideologies and governing practices among
former members of the socialist camp. Reforming policing
systems which had served primarily to protect the
party-states from their opponents into systems which serve
and protect civic society has come to be seen as an
essential prerequisite and concomitant of the
democratisation process in transitional countries.
The chapters in this book describe what has happened to the
policing systems in 14 countries in Central and eastern
Europe; what reforms in ideology, organisation, policies and
practices have been undertaken; what has changed in the way
policing is done; and assessment of whether the policing
system has moved closer toward democratic policing. In
combining descriptions of reforms and assessments of whether
reforms have moved policing systems toward more democratic
forms, the book provides a comparative overview of what has
been achieved since 1989 and what has been learned so far
about how to reform policing systems along democratic lines.
Such lessons offer insights for further reform in
transitional countries and for Western democracies as well,
and we hope will stimulate more theoretical discussions of
the nature and dynamics of policing systems, state-society
relations, and the role of processes of democratisation of
policing systems.
Marina Caparini is Senior Fellow at the
Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces.
Otwin Marenin is Professor in the Department of Political
Science / Criminal Justice, Washington State University.
