Civil Disobedience

Civil disobedience is a ritualistic or symbolic violation of law rather than rejection of the system as a whole, taken when legitimate avenues are blocked or non-existent.

For

• Individual is a higher moral authority than the state – to think otherwise it to reduce justice to legality
• HENRY DAVID THOREAU – civil disobedience stops us being agents of injustice
• MARTIN LUTHER KING – ‘without civil disobedience we are in danger of patiently adjusting to injustice’
• Opportunity to offer alternative views – voice of the minority
• ARISTOTLE’S will of the majority can leave the minorities alienated and marginalised
• Political procedures can be unjust (procedural injustice) or even too slow to react when human life is in danger
• GHANDI – “satyagraha” – can achieve equal rights and freedom
• Marxists believe that the state is a tool of oppression which is a vehicle for ignoring minorities and promoting the views of the bourgeoisie

Against

• May undermine respect for the law and cause social disorder
• Without order life would be nasty, brutish and short – HOBBES
• May lead to rebellion and revolution
• Politics is based on complete and willing subordination to a master
• JOSEPH DE MAISTRE: The notion of a limit to political obedience is dangerous and insidious; Don’t oppose a monarch who is trying to look after you