ABSTRACT
The early modern idea of police in the West differs from the contemporary notion of an organization devoted to fighting crime (Garland, 2001). Police from the 16th to the 19th centuries in continental Europe meant institutions for the creation of an orderly environment, especially for trade and commerce. The historical origins of the term through German back to French are derived from the Greek notion of “policy” or “politics” in Aristotle (Smith, 1762/1978, p. 486; Neocleous, 1998). It referred to all the institutions and processes of ordering that gave rise to prosperity, progress, and happiness, most notably the constitution of markets. Actually, it referred to that subset of governance that many contemporary scholars conceive as regulation.
