Bent to Authorities? Human Rights, Authoritarian Neoliberalism and Consent Policing

Across southern Europe, there is a growing legitimacy crisis as frustrations with austerity – in particular unemployment and curtailed public services – spill out into the street. In Madrid, Barcelona, and other cities, police have sought to protect state government buildings against street protests and riots.

As in Europe, in the United States (US) growing economic disparity, unemployment and a lack of access to social services is related at a minimum to conditions that produce crime and disorder (Hagan and Albonetti 1988). Instead of addressing underlying inequalities, which have worsened since 2008 (Saez 2014), governments have sought to contain social disorders with more aggressive social control instruments (Garland 2001), including welfare surveillance (Gilliom 2001, Wacquant 2009) and policing.