soc 329

• Thomas Hobbes in "Leviathan" (1651) describes the 'state of nature' as a condition of masterless men without laws or coercive power, advocating for a mutual covenant with a sovereign power for political authority
• Hobbes argues that life without security is "solitary, poore, nasty, brutish, and short" and believes that without a system of rules, humans have an innate proclivity towards violence
• John Locke, in "Two Treatises of Government" (1690), responds to Hobbes by proposing that liberty is best achieved through a system of checks and balances, emphasizing the protection of life, liberty, and property
• Jeremy Bentham views security as the most important object of legislative policy, equating security with the establishment of stable patterns of expectation to form one's own interests and desires
• John Stuart Mill sees security as the most vital interest, emphasizing the protection of person and property as the primary role of the government
• The birth of the welfare state in the late 19th and early 20th centuries expanded the role of the government to provide social security through taxation, social insurance, and redistributive policies to manage poverty, sickness, education, sanitation, and housing
• The end of the Cold War saw a focus on national security as deterrence between the USA and USSR, leading to the development of nuclear arms capacities and strategic security studies to maintain deterrence through de-escalation and disarmament
• The concept of human security, originating from the United Nations Development Programme in the mid-1990s, aims to advance 'freedom from fear and want' by integrating security with development, humanitarian, and human rights concerns
• Human security policies aim to provide the building blocks of survival, livelihood, and dignity by ensuring access to basic needs like income, food, clean water, healthcare, and protection from violence, diffusing security responsibilities to a range of actors beyond the state
• The pluralization of security involves the privatization of city spaces, reliance on digital communication infrastructure for security, and the role of private law in corporate, contract, intellectual property, banking, and finance law
• Pluralization of security:

  • Recognizes diversification in institutions and actors involved in 'security governance' beyond the state
  • Extended family of policing from high to low policing driven by urbanization, privatization of urban space, and technological advances
• Subjective and symbolic dimensions of security are constructed and mediated through a broader range of institutions and actors
• Hybrid forms of security governance are subject to different sets of laws, leading to negative impacts on rights and undermining democratic accountability
• Liberal security paradox:

  • Governance of security through knowledge of the future in the face of uncertainty
  • Implicit forecast involves the governance of security where contingencies are contained/attained and dependency in terms of safety and security
• Governing the future:

  • Attempts to understand the threat environment and make it knowable in data for governability
  • Individuals require knowledge of risk and engage in risk assessment
  • Scientific risk assessments aim to make the future knowable and governable, depending on surveillance technologies and databases
• Risk as scientific language of probability:

  • Involves a calculus of frequency and severity for cost-benefit analysis
  • Risk statements are also statements of uncertainty because statements about degrees of certainty imply uncertainty
  • Low probability high-impact events induce hyper-precautionary attention to risk and security
• Risk as scientific language of management and forensics:

  • External and internal sources of harm are converted into organizational risks through technologies like early warning systems and inspections
  • Efforts at risk management can produce new uncertainties
• Authority at the center of politics:

  • Law decides risk-taking activities for possible harm
  • Criminal Law provides a framework for governing uncertainty by identifying harms and devising rules and sanctions
• Counter laws as pursuit:

  • Counter-Law I provides authority for security governance and justifies new investments in face of catastrophic risk
  • Counter-Law II uses data-driven risk assessment technologies for surveillance and control of uncertain futures
• Hollowing out the state thesis:

  • Reduction of state role in policing replaced by private security forces due to urbanization and technologization
• White typology:

  • Collaborative approach between policy-makers and security service providers in setting goals and carrying out security operations
• Exceptionalism, democracy, security concerns post 9/11 bypass democratic processes, eroding long-term foundations of liberty and security
• Liberty-security paradox:

  • Tools meant to keep citizens safe may foster pervasive monitoring that curtails basic freedoms
• Matrix of liberal democracy:

  • Rule of Law: limits on legal power, principles enshrined in law restrain those in power
  • Political Leadership: embraces discretionary action necessary for progress, requires trust and legitimacy
  • The People - Popular Will: source of sovereignty, informs laws and policy choices, can demand social change not yet supported by existing law
• Fear as an energetic principle:

  • Pushes popular will into political leadership and both into the rule of law, leading to diminished legal protections and erosion of democracy
• Security governance involves practices within and beyond the state, covering objective vs. subjective security, security as a pursuit/practice, and the symbolic aspects of security
• Philosophies of security and liberalism influence security practices, with a distinction between national security and human security
• The pluralization of policing, influenced by neoliberal discourse, led to a transformation thesis favoring privatization of public functions into private ownership
• In the 1970s, a move towards pluralization of policing was spurred by neoliberal discourse advocating limited state involvement in managing the population, leading to the outsourcing of policing functions to the private sector for efficiency and job generation
• Private policing, with less regulation, emerged alongside public policing, leading to debates on the disruption of the 'monopoly' of public policing and the transformation of institutions of social control
• Plural policing involves public (judicial oversight, constitutional) and private (corporate/contract, profit-seeking obligation) aspects, impacting social media surveillance and algorithmic transparency
• Key takeaways include recognizing the diversification of institutions and actors involved in security governance, the construction of subjective and symbolic dimensions of security, and the impact of hybrid security governance on rights and democratic accountability
• Surveillance plays a crucial role in security governance, with trends towards privatization, 'hollowing out the state', and the transformation thesis influencing the security landscape
• The private security industry plays a significant role in security governance, contributing to the friend/enemy divide in security politics and impacting exceptionalism, rule of law, and liberal democracy
• Exceptionalism can lead to erosion of legal protections under the guise of security, fostering hyper-securitization through risk and surveillance, creating a liberty-security paradox that may curtail basic freedoms
• Security governance involves structures, institutions, and agents that construct ideas about objects of security governance through notions of 'risk', 'threat', and (in)security
• Security governance involves ongoing management and regulation of objects of security governance through preventive administrative measures like surveillance and everyday social interactions
• Security agents of the state include government, military, politicians, lawmakers, policy-makers, regulatory bodies, security intelligence agencies, police, and public transport authorities
• Beyond the state, security agents include the security industry, surveillance tech companies, social media platforms, media, NGOs, Business Improvement Associations (BIAs), and community groups
• Objective security implies a condition of complete safety and without threat, while subjective security refers to feelings about risk and danger derived through social and material conditions