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Civic Republicanism, Liberty, and Police: The Roots of Modern English Policing

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2024

J. ROBERT DALEIDEN
J. ROBERT DALEIDEN*
Affiliation:
Chapel Hill, North Carolina
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Abstract

Modern English policing arose from crime, laws, and demands for social order, but this perspective further introduces matters of philosophy that ties political liberty to political economy as being less recognized but equally powerful contributors. Shown here is how civic republican political economy (1600–1750) policing lost favor to laissez-faire utilitarian preferences (1750–1829) and helped produce more civic democratic policing. Through this perspective, it shows that Sir Robert Peel’s 1829 police were really centuries in the making.

Keywords

policehistorical institutionallaissez-faireutilitarianmercantilismeconomypoliticspolicy
Type
Article
Information
Journal of Policy History , Volume 36 , Issue 2 , April 2024 , pp. 242 - 259
Copyright
© Donald Critchlow and Cambridge University Press, 2024

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Footnotes

The author wishes to thank the reviewers and editors at the Journal of Policy History as well as Vicki Russell and Martin Love for their valuable review and comments.

References

NOTES

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