On the Metamorphosis of One Institution of Civil Society

Abstract

The article presents a version of the evolution of the police institution, which was originally part of civil society, not the state. A few paragraphs from Hegel’s lectures on the philosophy of law become the starting point of this re­construction. Based on the ideas expressed in them, the author explains the mechanism of the emergence of the police from the activities of citizens to es­tablish rules (protocols) of interaction, the supervision of which they jointly conduct for the common good – this, in fact, is the purpose of the police ini­tially. The proposed reconstruction can be useful in two aspects. Firstly, it points to the gradual degeneration of the institution of the police, to its trans­formation from an institution of civil society into an element of the state sys­tem and an organ of external violence, and consequently, to a decrease in the participation of citizens in the supervision of the observance of the common good and their transformation into a passive object of alien power influence. Secondly, this reconstruction shows that various types of modern civic activity in the field of social policy (policy making) originated as part of the first po­lice protocols and related actions.