Concerning Dissent and Civil Disobedience (From Civil Disobedience, P 91-105, 1989, Paul Harris, ed. -- See NCJ-121683)

• NCJ Number: 121687
• Author(s): A Fortas
• Date Published: 1989
• Length: 15 pages
• Sale Source: University Press of America
• Publication Type: Issue Overview
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This analysis of the role of civil disobedience in a democratic society argues that the term has been frequently misapplied and that the only kind of civil disobedience that is truly defensible as a matter of social morality is that which is directed against laws that are basically offensive to fundamental values of life or of the Constitution.

Abstract

In contrast, law violations that are not directed to the laws are practices that are the subject of dissent and aim to dramatize this dissent may be morally as well as politically unacceptable. In addition, any violation of law must be punished, as the theory of civil disobedience recognizes. Moreover, violence in the name of civil disobedience is intolerable. People who seek change need to recognize that our democratic processes do function and that they can bring about fundamental responses to fundamental demands without revolution and despite the occasional violence of those who either reject or have not acquired the restraint to use their freedom appropriately.