Browsing by Author "Pschorn, Nina Maria"

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    Civil disobedience as a democratic practice
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2019-04) Pschorn, Nina Maria; Roodt, Vasti; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Philosophy.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The aim of this thesis is to develop a moral justification for civil disobedience as a practice of democratic contestation. I begin by investigating the problem of disobedience in the context of our obligation to comply with democratic laws. Here I explore five influential theories of political obligation and establish that disobedience is not a violation of all grounds of obligation. Chapter Two sets out the necessary features of civil disobedience. I start by distinguishing civil disobedience from other types of resistance, namely conscientious objection and revolutionary action. Once I have established what civil disobedience is not, I move to the defining features of civil disobedience as an illegal act committed by a conscientious agent with a particular communicative aim. In Chapter Three, I address the question of violence insofar as it poses a justificatory problem for an account of civil disobedience. Here I argue against the common assumption that civil disobedience is nonviolent by definition, and argue instead that the use of violence is a matter of justification, not definition. By making a distinction between violence that aims to coerce and violence that aims to persuade, I argue that a degree of violence may be permissible insofar as it serves the larger communicative aims of the act and is compatible with the duty to respect the autonomy of one’s fellow citizens. The final chapter of the thesis is devoted to the relationship between civil disobedience and the rule of law. Here I demonstrate that the willingness to accept the legal consequences of the law-breaking act is a necessary component of justified acts of civil disobedience. The willingness to accept the possibility of punishment is what exemplifies the civil disobedient as a conscientious citizen who demonstrates respect for the law and for the autonomy of her fellow citizens. It is furthermore a mark of distinction between civil disobedience as a fundamentally communicative act and conscientious objection and ordinary criminal offences. In the concluding part of the thesis, I examine the Rivonia trial as a paradigmatic example of conscientious agents seeking to persuade their fellow citizens, demonstrating their willingness to cooperate with the state and civil society in the future advancement of justice. I further argue that, while the willingness to accept the legal consequences of the law-breaking action is a justificatory feature of acts of civil disobedience, such justification does not require agents to plead guilty and passively accept the punishment. Rather, the civil disobedient aims to persuade his or her fellow citizens and the judicial authority that the act for which he or she is on trial does not constitute a criminal wrong, but that it is the law that is unjust. Under these circumstances, civil disobedience is not only permissible, but a morally justifiable and even praiseworthy form of political engagement within a democratic society.