DOES VIOLENT DISSENT AFFECT POLICE MILITARIZATION? On reasons for increasing the ability to coerce

Sammanfattning

The last decade has seen the police becoming more militarized around the globe, retracing the steps back to the institutions violent historical roots. The phenomenon has been under scrutiny for 20 years, but the research isn’t connected to other fields into which it might fit. This thesis asks if police militarization is caused by violent dissent, thereby connecting the field to wider theories of coercive capacity building and repression. I propose that the mechanism through which dissent acts on police militarization is threat to the state. 106 countries from 1960 to 2010 are examined, but I find no significant correlation of violent dissent with police militarization. The attempt is not fruitless though, as I instead discover robust but puzzling correlations relating to democracy and economic development.