The Myth of Civil Disobedience

Abstract

This paper critiques the 'ruling' Rawlsian theory of civil disobedience. The theory is rejected because of its irrelevant and/or unsound assumption of a 'social contract'. Instead, an approach must be taken which does not assume one general political obligation. A more appropriate model is one which asserts the (possibility) and existence of various conditional reasons for obedience. Precisely these various reasons are critically analysed in this paper. In a final section this alternate approach is applied to disobedience performed by government officials and politicians.

Keywords: civil disobedience, Rawls, social contract