Book Talk -- Authoritarian Police in Democracy: Challenges for Latin America and the US

Join the Ash Center and Carr Center for Human Rights for the launch of Authoritarian Police in Democracy: Contested Security in Latin America by HKS Assistant Professor Yanilda María González. Authoritarian Police in Democracy examines the persistence of authoritarian policing in Latin America to explain why police violence and malfeasance remain pervasive decades after democratization. It also examines the conditions under which reform can occur. Drawing on rich comparative analysis and evidence from Brazil, Argentina, and Colombia, the book opens up the 'black box' of police bureaucracies to show how police forces exert power and cultivate relationships with politicians, as well as how social inequality impedes change. González shows that authoritarian policing persists not in spite of democracy but in part because of democratic processes and public demand.

Prof. González will be in conversation with Professors Vesla Weaver (Johns Hopkins University) and Daniel Brinks (University of Texas at Austin) about why police forces have been placed at the center of social unrest and debates about democracy and rule of law around the world, from the United States to Colombia to Nigeria. Professor Kathryn Sikkink of Harvard Kennedy School will moderate.