Policing the Liberal democratic state in a pandemic: Public safety, state overreach, and the creation of order

ABSTRACT The liberal democratic state exercises power through an element of governmental rationality, and police and the reason of the state constitute this rationality. The reason of the state and the regulation of individual conduct in a pandemic gives primary importance to the idea of public safety. Here, public order takes precedence over law enforcement, where law enforcement is geared to meet only one end, i.e., public safety. This paper argues that during a pandemic, the police creates different kinds of governmental order by stressing on security and public safety as an essential requirement. In doing so, the police form public safety as a reason or an element of state’s rationale for enforcing laws, thereby curtailing individual rights and liberties. The paper demonstrates how police can transform the rule of law into the rule of order within the state by changing law enforcement techniques to maintain a stable political order.