RELINKING THE SOCIAL AND THE POLITICAL: HEGEL, MARX AND THE POLICE AS SOCIALISATION OF THE STATE POWER

Georg Wilhelm Frederick Hegel has been one of the most influential philosophers of all time. His original philosophical system has been the subject of many studies from various disciplines including philosophy, political science, law, sociology and many more. Despite his long-term popularity, his complex and multi-dimensional philosophy still allow for further investigations on distinct problems. Although many studies have been carried out on him, only a few writers have been able to draw attention to his ideas concerning police power. Hence, this paper, within the problematic of differentiation of state (political) and bourgeois civil society (social), addresses the question of police in Hegel’s thought and the Marx’s critique of it. The study argues that the police power appears in Hegel’s thought as the socialisation of the state power.