1102GIR Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: 1971 South Africa Rugby Union Tour Of Australia, Romanian Revolution, Commonwealth Police
4 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
L10. Police and Military
Lecture Outline
1. Violence and the state
2. Rise of the Police
3. Case Study: Queensland's Fitzgerald Inquiry
4. The Military
5. Case Study: The 1989 Romanian Revolution
Violence and the State
• Hobbes: Leviathan secures order through overwhelming force
• Lenin: "What does this power mainly consist of? It consists of special bodies of armed men"
• Mao: "political power grows out of the barrel of a gun"
Weber's Definition
• Max Weber, 1919 (from 'Politics as a Vocation')
o "Nowadays…we must say that the state is the form of human community that
(successfully) lays claim to the monopoly of legitimate physical violence within a given
territory."
Institutionalised Violence
• The legitimacy of state violence comes from subordination to legal/democratic control
• Civilian control of militaries (armies, navies, airforces, etc.) and paramilitaries (e.g. police)
• But militaries and paramilitaries still posses the power of force
• So how do we ensure civilian control? Can we ensure it?
o Should we ensure it?
o Are the military/police ever entitled to usurp power?
Rise of the Police
• 'Police' comes from Latin 'politia', Greek 'politeia' (citizenship of civil polity) and 'polis' (city)
• The same etymological roots and politics and policy
• So, police are directly linked to the state (and the city)
o The role of police is to enforce law, apprehend law breakers, protect property and
secure order
o In ancient and medieval Europe, policing was usually carried out by soldiers, volunteers
or privately paid guards
o Modern police emerged in the 17th century
Policing in Australia
• Origins as a penal colony
• Port Jackson settlement was policed by Royal Marines
• Gold rush and bushranging era (Eureka Stockade)
• Arming (1890s)
• Commonwealth Police Force (1917) and Federal Police (1979)
Case Study: The Fitzgerald Inquiry
• Premier from 1968 to 1987
• Gerrymanders, State of Emergency (1971 Springbok tour), suppression of civil liberties
• The deal: Police suppress dissent, politicians tolerate police corruption
• 1989 Fitzgerald Inquiry Report:
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
