Seguridad Crime, Police Power, and Democracy in Argentina

"This is a rich and evocative book that makes a significant contribution to police studies, regime theory, and, more broadly, political theory. The work deepens our understanding of policing as a form of governance, as the manifestation of the state at the ground level; police possess kingly prerogatives, the author argues, including the power of life and death. Seri shows how police act as gatekeepers of citizenship and administrators of rights and law--if they determine one is worthy--and how the rhetoric of seguridad is in essence an ideological framework that masks inequality and unites "decent" citizens. The author challenges mainstream perspectives of "democratic policing," questioning the assumption that police in democracies naturally act in lawful ways, and suggests a deep incompatibility between policing and democratic functioning. -- J. Patrice McSherry, Professor of Political Science, Long Island University "Building from a series of interviews with police agents, Seri's book expands into an analysis of contemporary politics in Argentina and, from there, a fully-fledged critique of seguridad. Insightful and incisive, powerful and provocative, this book is a major contribution to our understanding of police power, the logic of sovereignty and the violence performed in the name of security." -Mark NeocleousProfessor of the Critique of Political Economy Brunel University, UK "Demonstrating how crime fears--often forged through a relationship between the media and politics--Guillermina Seri's carefully researched, Seguirdad: Crime, Police Power, and Democracy in Argentina, demonstrates brilliantly how police, as "the state's capillary arms," assist in making an unequal and fragmented society appear to be 'democratically' governed." Martha K. Huggins, author of Political Policing (Duke) and Violence Workers (U, of California)