Policing the pandemic in two Western European countries: comparison between France and the Netherlands
The policing of the measures to control the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus has been a core aspect of the 2020-2021 corona crisis. This chapter concentrates on the differences in policing the corona crisis in France and the Netherlands. In both countries, a distinction must be made between the first...
| Authors: | ; ; |
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| Format: | Print Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2025
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| In: |
Routledge international handbook of policing crises and emergencies
Year: 2025, Pages: 200-211 |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Summary: | The policing of the measures to control the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus has been a core aspect of the 2020-2021 corona crisis. This chapter concentrates on the differences in policing the corona crisis in France and the Netherlands. In both countries, a distinction must be made between the first half year of the pandemic and the period after September 2020. The first period has shown that there have been huge differences between these two jurisdictions. In France, the police started with a very strict and repressive approach. In the Netherlands, the police tried to develop a more pragmatic, communicative, and responsibilising style. After the summer of 2020, in both countries, the style of policing gradually started to change. In France, the most important change was that the rather tough and ‘hierarchical’ policing approach has been ‘softened’. In the Netherlands, at some periods in practice, the law enforcement of the corona rules almost seemed to have been ceased and the originally high levels of support of the Dutch citizens for the anti-corona rules and policy of the government have decreased considerably. This chapter tries to understand both the differences in policing the corona crisis between the two countries and the changes in the two countries in the way that the police have operated. Both these differences and the changes in policing can be understood by looking at the underlying frames about the relationship between state and citizens. More or less similar are the differences in frames about the relationship between police and citizens. In France, the dominant frame is of policing as a matter of ‘force’ and ‘war’; the Dutch policing style is framed in terms of responsibilisation, communication, and persuasion. A relevant factor here is also how the governments have tried to create and maintain legitimacy and support for their anti-corona policies. Both approaches created their own, specific problems that have resulted in the changes in the styles of policing and rule enforcement that were mentioned before. Despite these important differences, there are also similarities. In both countries, there have been fundamental criticisms on the legal basis of the corona measures and of the way that these have been policed. The issues of protest and criticism are often related to the specific dominating frames, in some cases in a paradoxical way. |
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| Item Description: | Literaturverzeichnis: Seite 210-211 |
| ISBN: | 9781032207872 |
