ABSTRACT
Civil disobedience is the non-violent breaking of a law on moral grounds. While there were theorists of civil disobedience in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and the theory may be applicable to non-democratic societies, this chapter focuses on the post-war discussion of civil disobedience in a liberal democratic society. Although few people may ever engage in civil disobedience in their lifetimes it is not a peripheral concept, for the justification of civil disobedience touches on the moral basis of majoritarian democracy. Whereas in the pre-modern and early modern periods political theory was concerned with the right to rebel, the fundamental question raised by civil disobedience to a modern audience is this: how is it possible to have a general respect for the rule of law and yet break specific laws?
