The Exceptional Form of State and Police: Restructuring the Internal Security Apparatus in the 12 September Period

Abstract

This study discusses the reorganization of police apparatus after the 12 September 1980 coup d'etat. Following Nicos Poulantzas' distinction between normal and exceptional forms of state, this work examines the role of internal security apparatus, police organization in administering civil society and in the re-establishment of hegemony. Police is not merely a coercive apparatus that suppresses political opposition by legitimate physical use of force. In that sense, this study suggests that the police is an institution having the capacity to penetrate the entire body of civil society.