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The concept of security: an agenda for comparative analysis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Lucia Zedner
Lucia Zedner*
Affiliation:
Corpus Christi College, University of Oxford
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Abstract

The pursuit of security as a matter of domestic policy stands high on the political agenda of many Western nations and is a booming area of private investment. This repays close attention to what is meant when the concept of security is invoked as a justification of public policy or private practice. This paper examines the various meanings and differing constructions of security as a negative or positive presence, as a material or symbolic good, as a public good or private service, and as a response to external or internal threats. It observes how the language of security is differentiated also according to local legal cultures and calls for comparative analysis of the meaning and usage of the term in different jurisdictions. It suggests some possible differences in the structural arrangements for the pursuit of security that arise from differing relationships among the state, private sector and civil society. And it concludes by mapping out some apparent variants on the public-private divide that might profitably inform comparative analysis of the practices, as opposed to the rhetoric, of security.

Type
Research Article
Information
Legal Studies , Volume 23 , Issue 1 , March 2003 , pp. 153 - 176
Copyright
Copyright © Society of Legal Scholars 2003

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