Police in civil society: police, Enlightenment and civic virtue in urban Scotland,c. 1780–1833

Abstract

ABSTRACT:Based on how notions of civil society and civic virtue were defined in Enlightenment Scotland, this article assesses how far these ideals shaped police development in Scottish towns, c. 1780–1833. It argues that both concepts provided a framework for the development of ‘police’ as a broad mechanism of urban government. Collectively, civil society and civic virtue offered a wide-ranging, intellectual backdrop presupposing ideas on police, improvement and polite society, with the new police model bearing a striking resemblance to how these ideals were imagined and constructed at the time.

Review of periodical literature published in 2010

“…Denys reviews the differing transformations of policing in eighteenth‐century Europe. Barrie also focuses on policing, asking how far notions of civil society and civic virtue helped to shape the development of police forces in urban Scotland during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Levack considers a significant turning point in the prosecution of sexual crimes in eighteenth‐century Scotland.…”

Reordenar la ciudad. Policía urbana, orden público y control social en Madrid del Sexenio Democrático

“…Todo ello se plasmó en actuaciones desplegadas en múltiples escenarios, introducidas por bandos, reglamentos y disposiciones que, en líneas generales, trataron de implementar nuevos estándares de disciplina, comportamiento y usos del espacio, similares a los que se establecieron en otras ciudades durante el ochocientos por vías policiales y administrativas (Storch, 1975(Storch, -1976Monkonnen, 1981;Emsley, 1983;Inwood, 1990;Ogborn, 1993;Taylor, 1997;Fraile, 2001;Lousada, 2005;Merriman, 2006, pp. 118-166;Barrie, 2010;Andersson, 2014;Barrie y Bromhall, 2016).…”