El Ejército, la Policía y el mantenimiento del Orden Público en Inglaterra (1750-1950)

Abstract

There is an assumption that the society of mainland Britain, and particularly England itself, was essentially non-violent during the nineteenth century and at least up until the end of the Second World War. Part of the assumption focuses on the development of an unarmed, civilian police institution that took responsibility for dealing with public order and obviated the need for summoning the military. There were no revolutions, no civil wars, and no pronunciamentos in England during this period and there is debate about the extent to which this was the result of accident or good sense on the part of the people and the government. The question of what constitutes a violent society and the extent to which violence is the result of contingency or design are central here and of continuing fascination for historians and social and political scientists. This essay, however, will present a chronological narrative of the related and equally important issue of the shifting public order roles of the military and the police in England.