2025/01/10 by Lauren A. McCarthy · 1 voice
Social Sciences · #Crime Patterns and Interventions #Crime, Illicit Activities, and Governance #Criminal Justice and Corrections Analysis
paper · pdf · doi:10.1017/jlc.2024.27
openalex publication_date 2025/01/10 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/21
Abstract How can citizens in authoritarian regimes exercise oversight of the legal system? I examine police and court monitoring, bottom-up oversight activities popular in pre-war Russia (2012–2022). Monitoring pushes the state to honor commitments it has made in its own laws, taking advantage of the authoritarian state’s need for information and legitimacy. Yet monitoring activities are not just about improving the state’s performance. Using interviews, participant observation and document analysis of monitoring campaigns in pre-war Russia, I argue that monitoring can empower citizens in a profoundly disempowering environment, perhaps its most important legacy in a closing authoritarian space.