A Democracy of Authorities: Broken Windows Policing and the Neoconservative Political Theory of Law and Order

Neoliberalism provides a compelling explanation for how city governments satisfy private capital interests by slashing social welfare spending and criminalizing the racialized poverty it unleashes. However, neoliberalism cannot account for why the politics of law and order also often find support from within overpoliced communities. This article claims that underlying broken windows policing is a neoconservative theory of democracy aimed not so much at directly reducing crime or enforcing disorder but at empowering organic community authorities. Specifically, I show how neoconservatives developed this theory of democracy in response to the urban crisis, which they argued was a crisis of authority and not of material deprivation, as welfare liberals believed. This article thus suggests that we understand the project of neoconservatism as aimed at making modern conservatism appealing within an increasingly diverse democracy by cultivating (authoritarian) political attachments between traditional authorities in the community and the police.