The Philosophical Problem of Democratic Policing

Abstract: This article provides a critical overview of democratic policing from a philosophical perspective. To do so, it constructs a stylized taxonomy of philosophical approaches to the topic, featuring the legalist and the participatory democratic. This taxonomy allows for the formulation of general theoretical problems for democratically legitimizing police power. The most significant problem is the passive ideal of policing shared by both approaches. But there is the overlooked option of an active, strategic conception of policing aimed at the democratic value of responsiveness.