Challenges of policing democracies: a world perspective: Executive summary of The Second International Police Executive Symposium, Oñati, Spain, 1995

The Second International Police Executive Symposium (Oñati, May, 1995) was organized on the theme of “Challenges of policing democracies: a world perspective.” It was attended by police leaders, academics and justice professionals from 13 countries. Among them there were six emerging democracies, four established democracies, and three mixed democracies. The objectives of the symposium were established as follows: (1) to appreciate at first hand what the police in emerging democracies regarded as challenges in operating in the newly democratic political environment (the established democracies and the mixed democracies were invited to present their contemporary experiences of the “Challenges of policing democracies”); (2) to explore the similarities and the differences of the challenges, if any, from one category of democratic societies to another; and (3) to discuss the responses and the remedies adopted by various countries at different levels of democratic achievement.