Research framework and broader academic knowledge base
Serbia: documented application of the same framework
How does the police stop protecting all citizens and begin primarily protecting those in power?
The police ceases to be the service of all citizens when they no longer treat the same behavior according to the same rule. Protest supporters of the government can be protected or ignored, while critics are legitimized, monitored, detained or exposed to force.
Change is built through the choice of managers, advancement by loyalty, political lists, selective orders and impunity of officials who exceed the authority against “wrong” people. The authorities can also use private security, party activists or criminal groups to make the pressure look like a private conflict and to make the denial of responsibility easier. That is why the politicization of the police is not proven by one incident, but by a repeated pattern of different protections.
The connection of the authorities with private or criminal perpetrators is deliberately hidden. At the same time, violence is not enough without evidence of agreement, assistance or impunity.
Works supporting this answer, with their evidence type and an explanation of how they relate to the claim.
review more research
Davenport, C. (2007), „State Repression and Political Order“, Annual Review of Political Science 10: 1–23.
- Contribution to this answer
- Davenport shows that the state directs repression towards the political threat it sees, so that police and other coercive power can be used selectively towards groups that the government considers dangerous, not equal to all citizens.
review more research
Earl, J. (2003), „Tanks, Tear Gas, and Taxes: Toward a Theory of Movement Repression“, Sociological Theory 21(1): 44–68.
- Contribution to this answer
- Earl shows that repression involves much more than police violence: legal, administrative and economic measures can also limit political action. The work is wider than authoritarian police work, but it helps to see the repertoire of control.
Explain how the system works
Ritter, E. H. i Conrad, C. R. (2016), „Preventing and Responding to Dissent: The Observational Challenges of Explaining Strategic Repression“, American Political Science Review 110(1): 85–99.
- Contribution to this answer
- Ritter and Conrad show that the government reacts strategically to dissent and that part of the repression is pre-emptive, before the protest becomes visible. This means that the coercion apparatus can protect the political order even without the constant visible violence.
Study of Serbia
Petrović, V. (2026), „Under Pressure: The Politics of Clientelism and Coercion in Serbia“, Democratization.
Petrović, V. (2026), “Under Pressure: The Politics of Clientelism and Coercion in Serbia”, Democratization.
- Contribution to this answer
- Petrović shows how political dependence and pressure can permeate everyday relations with the state in Serbia. For the police, work is indirect, but it gives a domestic context in which access to state resources is not politically neutral.
comparing several countries or cases
González, Y. M. (2020), Authoritarian Police in Democracy: Contested Security in Latin America, Cambridge University Press.
- Contribution to this answer
- González directly shows how the police can keep authoritarian patterns of work even in a democratic environment, when the political interests and institutional autonomy of the police are stronger than responsibility to all citizens.
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