Civil disobedience
Concept · Politics, stage 1: Learn the vocabulary
Civil disobedience is a public breach of law undertaken to protest a law or policy, by someone who accepts the legal consequences of the act. Theorists usually distinguish it from ordinary lawbreaking by its openness and its appeal to principles the wider society already claims to hold, and from revolution by its acceptance of the broader legitimacy of the system it challenges. Whether it must be non-violent, whether it must be a last resort, and whether covert lawbreaking can qualify are all disputed.
Why it matters
It is the test case for what a citizen owes a state whose laws they judge to be unjust.
Part of
Civil disobedience in the glossary
Sources
- Civil Disobedience Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- Civil disobedience Wikipedia
