Recent Continental European scholarship has identified a problematic Anglocentric bias running through the field of comparative plural policing studies. It has sought to counter this bias by emphasizing a series of divergent plural policing trajectories between the more market-friendly countries in the Anglosphere and the more state-centric countries in Continental Europe. While acknowledging the significance of this corrective, we argue that it tends to overemphasize the levels of divergence between these two regions. We substantiate this claim by examining the rise of the private security industry and its regulation by the state in the UK (representing the Anglosphere) and Belgium (representing Continental Europe). Interpreting historical and contemporary data through Sabatier and Weible’s advocacy coalition framework, which focuses on the cut and thrust of democratic politics, we observe how in both countries this important dimension of the plural policing landscape is characterized not by counterposed market-friendly and state-centric trajectories, but rather by a complex mix of state–market interactions. In other words, the dynamics of private security regulation are more state-centric in the UK and more market-friendly in Belgium than recent Continental European scholarship suggests. Moreover, we illustrate how, under conditions of post-financial crisis austerity, the overarching pattern is, if anything, one of convergence towards a common set of political dynamics. This is an important finding that not only makes an original contribution towards private security regulation scholarship but also encourages us to question the nature of Anglocentric bias within comparative plural policing studies.

最近的欧洲大陆奖学金发现在比较多元警务研究领域存在着一个有问题的盎格鲁中心偏见。它试图通过强调盎格鲁圈中对市场更友好的国家与欧洲大陆中以国家为中心的国家之间的一系列多元化的多元治安轨迹来对付这种偏见。在承认这一纠正措施的重要性的同时，我们认为它往往过分强调了这两个区域之间的分歧水平。我们通过检查私人保安业的兴起及其在英国（代表盎格鲁圈）和比利时（代表欧洲大陆）的国家的监管来证实这一主张。通过Sabatier和Weible的倡导联盟框架来解释历史数据和当代数据，重点关注民主政治的切入点和发展方向，我们观察到在两国中，多元警务格局的这一重要方面不是以对立的市场友好和以国家为中心的轨迹为特征，而是以州与市场互动的复杂结合为特征的。换句话说，与最近欧洲大陆的奖学金建议相比，私人安全监管的动态在英国更加以国家为中心，在比利时更为市场友好。此外，我们说明了在后金融危机紧缩的情况下，总体模式（如果有的话）是朝着一套共同的政治动态趋同的趋向。