Police in Transition by Andras s> Kadar (review)

Abstract

REVIEWS 591 Neumann therefore sees the Banat as the multicultural model not just for Romania, but for Romania within a diverse and tolerant Europe. This, however, itself depends upon educational reform at both the local and Europeanlevels. The volume closeswith a discussionof the relationshipbetween the GreekCatholic and Orthodox churches since I948 when the two churches were forciblyunified.Neumann sees the persecutionof the Greek-Catholicchurch, overwhelmingly located in Transylvania, as being largely the product of a confrontation between 'Oriental or Balkan' values, as represented by the highly-nationalisticOrthodox church, and 'European'values, as represented by the Greek Catholics. Despite the law of I989 which annulled the enforced unity of I948, relations between the two churches and their flocks have not been good. Indeed, violence erupted in Cluj in I998 and I999. Nevertheless, Neumann sees the acceptance by the Orthodox church of the pope's visit to Romania in I999 as an attempt to engage with the modernizingvalues of the WTest. Professor Neumann's volume is therefore recommended for students of contemporaryRomanian social and political history, as well as those seeking to understandRomania from a regional and cross-culturalperspective. The appendices provide useful statisticalinformation with regard to the diverse populations of the Banat and education of minorities within Romania as a whole. The volume is available from The Council for Research in Values and Philosophy, Cardinal Station, P.O. Box 26I, WashingtonD.C. 20064, USA, http://www.crvp.org. School ofSlavonic andEastEuropean Studies REBECCA HAYNES Ulniversity College London Kadar, Andras (ed.). Policein Transition. Central European University Press, Budapest and New York,2001. Vii + 262 pp. Notes. References. Appendices . Index. $22.95: [13.95 (paperback). POLICE IN TRANSITION providesan excellent overviewof a problem which has been inadequatelystudiedby researchersboth in the West and in transitional countries. This book fillsan importantgap in the literature.It also makes the reader understandwhy this topic is of such importance in understandingthe processof democratizationthatis underwayin Centraland EasternEurope. The sixteen essays in the collection provide a successful blending of specialistsfrom Western Europe and the United States as well as societies in transition.By focusingon the police transitionin Hungary, Romania, Poland, Bulgaria and the former Yugoslavia, the collection provides a comparative perspective that allows the reader to appreciate the differences in the phenomenon in diverse transitional societies. A centraltheme of the collection is the difficultiesthat all these transitional societies face in democratizing police and reducing authoritarian controls when they are confronted with an extraordinaryrise in crime and organized crime. Many members of the transitionalsocieties blame the unprecedented 592 SEER, 8i, 3, 2003 growth in crime on the inadequacies of police performance rather than understanding that the growth in crime is also explained by the structural problemsof transitionand the reductionin authoritariancontrols.The police are faultedformany problemsthat arebeyond theircontrol. There are several important recurring themes throughout the collection. These include the problems of accountabilityand police control, the absence of legal culture, and the lack of professionalismin the police. These are not unique problems to one transitional country but are found in all societies wherepolice were once chosen forordermaintenance and controlratherthan their professionalism and observance of legality. The problem of abuse of citizen rights and often outright brutality towards their fellow citizens is a central problem that undermines police standing with the citizenry and undermines their transition to a more democratic form of policing. The problem of corruption of police is a consistent problem that reduces police credibility and contributes to the perception in many transitional countries thatthe police arepartof the problemratherthan the solutionto fundamental problemsof social order. Istvan Szikingersuggeststhat there are no universal or clearly articulated characteristicsof democratic vs. totalitarianpolicing. Szikinger,very critical of the change in policing, reflectswhat Rob Mawby articulatelystates is the common problemin transitionalsocietiesthatthelong anticipatedanddesired change in policing has not come as easily and as rapidly as many in these societies would have hoped. Impeding the transitionto democratic policing, Mawby argues,is the enhanced fearof crimethatplacespressureon the police forresultsand not necessarilydemocratizationof itsconduct. Many socialist countries, Renate Weber points out, have established procedures to handle complaints against the police. The involvement of the citizenry in police control was a phenomenon unknown in the socialist era. But now citizens in the Czech Republic can take part in the criminal proceedings in Romania...