Creating Consent in an Illiberal Order: Policing Disputes in Jordan (Cambridge Middle East Studies)

"Police forces in the Middle East are broadly perceived by the outside world in terms of either their coercive role in repressing and observing the citizenry of states lacking in popular legitimacy, or their corruption and usurpation of judicial powers. While this perception can be justified by regional trends of authoritarianism, it presents a distorted picture of state control. It also fails to address the importance of 'low-policing', where the police rely on varied strategies of power to promote social order, particularly when it comes to problem-solving and policing disputes between citizens. This book studies the development of the civil police in Jordan to demonstrate that even in an illiberal setting, the police can be central to the process of constructing and maintaining hegemonic consent, and that equally, the fracturing of social order is not always signified by police violence. Unlike orthodox criminological appraisals of crime control that render the nature of state power unproblematic, this work contends that the manner in which common grievances and offences are handled by the police is deeply political, defining the state's character and the social order within it. I draw on police science, political theory and legal anthropology to explain how the police have historically used Jordan's oft-touted 'tribal' characteristics to garner consent and reinforce order from below; to consider how these attributes have contributed to regime survival; but also to highlight the police role in upholding competing normative frameworks related to civic participation and neoliberalism which are emerging from a combination of external pressures and domestic threats. The book should have a broad appeal not only to scholars of governance in contemporary Jordan but also to those interested in the resilience of authoritarian rule in the modern Middle East, the intersection of formal and informal normative institutions to regulate common grievances, and indeed to all those who question the assumption that the police - in any society - are first and foremost concerned with preserving the rule of law"-- Provided by publisher Middle Eastern police forces have a reputation for carrying out repression and surveillance on behalf of authoritarian regimes, despite frequently under enforcing the law. But what is their role in co-creating and sustaining social order? In this book, Jessica Watkins focuses on the development of the Jordanian police institution to demonstrate that rather than being primarily concerned with law enforcement, the police are first and foremost concerned with order. In Jordan, social order combines the influence of longstanding tribal practices with regime efforts to promote neoliberal economic policies alongside a sense of civic duty amongst citizens. Rather than focusing on the 'high policing' of offences deemed to threaten state security, Watkins explores the 'low policing' of interpersonal disputes including assault, theft, murder, traffic accidents, and domestic abuse to shed light on the varied strategies of power deployed by the police alongside other societal actors to procure hegemonic 'consent'. 04.0_pp_iv_iv_Copyright_page 05.0_pp_v_v_Contents 06.0_pp_vi_vi_Figures 07.0_pp_vii_vii_Maps 08.0_pp_viii_viii_Tables 09.0_pp_ix_ix_Preface 10.0_pp_x_xi_Acknowledgements 11.0_pp_xii_xii_Note_on_Transliterations 12.0_pp_xiii_xiv_Abbreviations 13.0_pp_1_27_Introduction 14.0_pp_28_60_Strategic_Alliances_and_Amalgamated_Social_Orders 15.0_pp_61_91_State_Policing_from_the_Ottoman_Gendarmerie_to_the_Public_Security_Directorate 16.0_pp_92_117_Criminalising_Disputes_and_Disputing_Criminality 17.0_pp_118_142_Policing_Blood_Crimes_in_the_NeoTribal_Tradition 18.0_pp_143_174_Policing_Domestic_Abuse 19.0_pp_175_198_Community_Policing_After_the_Uprisings 20.0_pp_199_212_From_Neoliberal_Securitised_Policing_Back_to_the_Disputing_Process 21.0_pp_213_225_Bibliography 22.0_pp_226_230_Index 23.0_pp_231_234_Books_in_the_Series Explores 'low policing' of interpersonal disputes in Jordan to show the inconspicuous methods the state uses to maintain social order