ABSTRACT
A great deal has been written about the changing nature of the state and society in recent years. Using such labels as ‘postmodernity’, ‘late modernity’, ‘high modernity’, ‘advanced liberalism’, ‘postKeynesianism’ and ‘risk society’, to name just a few (Giddens 1990; Beck 1992, O’Malley and Palmer 1996; Rose 1996, Johnston 2000a). It is not the purpose of this book to become embroiled in such debates, what is common to them all is a consideration of the changing nature of the state and governance and of the changing nature of society. This consideration is important when examining the emergence of private policing because a central tenet of many studies that have sought to explain the growth of private policing is that the character and nature of private policing are inexorably linked to the state, governance and society.
