ipl-logo

Civil Disobedience In Democracy

1207 Words5 Pages

Like Martin Luther King Jr once said “One has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.” With these words in mind, I affirm the resolution resolved: Civil disobedience in a democracy is morally justified. I offer the following definitions to help clarify the round: Civil disobedience is nonviolent refusal to follow the laws or demands of government to prove a point and the person participating in civil disobedience has to accept the consequences. A democracy is a government by the people, where the people elect representatives or the leader. Not everyone has to vote in a democracy but, the leaders or representatives have to be decided by the majority of eligible voters. Morally is doing the right thing based on the morals of the people …show more content…

As stated before civil disobedience allows for minorities to have say when it comes to making laws. Other forms of protest like legal protest, boycotting, and protest with permit are not as good. These methods are not as likely to get the attention of the majorities because you are not putting yourself at risk and not showing how bad the law is. They also cost money and time for the person to use these forms of protest. If a person performed civil disobedience and got arrested for it, the majority can then see the effect of the …show more content…

Alone legal methods can take ages and usually won't get anywhere. It is more important to break the law and get the attention of the majority than for the minority to get oppressed and not have a say in the democratic process.

My third contention is civil disobedience solves the problems of a democracy. Laws in a democracy are created by the people to help the societal welfare of the people. However a problem in this system is the fact that the majority gets to decide which laws get passed and which don't. Democracy is a system where the majority rules. Peter Singer writes, ““It has long been recognized that there is a danger of injustice in democracy because the democratic system takes no account of the intensity with which views are held, so that a majority which does not care very much about an issue can out-vote a minority for which the issue is of vital concern. By civil disobedience the minority can represent the intensity of its feelings to the

Show More
Related

  • Argumentative Essay: Breaking The Law

    608 Words  | 3 Pages

    Civil Disobedience Argumentative Essay For thousands of years, society has created laws to help protect the people and keep them safe and in order. There have been many historical figures such as Harriet Tubman, Cesar Chavez and Malala Yousafzai who have all broken the laws for the common people. Other historical figures like Nelson Mandela, Mohandas Gandhi, and Martin Luther King J.R, have also broken laws for what they believed was right and worked hard to improve the conditions for others. Therefore, breaking the law is justified when someone feels a particular law is unjust and they will do everything in their power to ensure the law is fair for all citizens.

    Read More

  • Comparing Civil Disobedience, By Gandhi, Thoreau, And Martin Luther King

    479 Words  | 2 Pages

    Civil Disobedience reveals, just because your Government made the laws, doesn't mean that you can’t at least try to peacefully protest against it. In the “Declaration Of Independence,” Thomas Jefferson states,”... whenever any form of government becomes destructive,

    Read More

  • Examples Of Civil Disobedience In Antigone

    513 Words  | 3 Pages

    Civil disobedience is an act or way of disobeying the law/government. You don’t cooperate with the law(s). Many people don’t cooperate with a law and so they protest in a way without using violence. Protesting is part of an act of civil disobedience, it’s a way for people to show or prove their point of view. In the article “ On the Duty of Civil Disobedience” states when a person’s conscience and law clash, the person would follow their conscience rather than the law.

    Read More

  • Letters From A Birmingham Jail By Martin Luther King Jr.

    781 Words  | 4 Pages

    As Martin Luther King Jr. observes in his "Letters From a Birmingham Jail," it is a sad thing when people condemn the effects of civil disobedience without considering the conditions which festered and led to such a nonviolent protest. As Thoreau writes in his "Civil Disobedience," too much respect for the law can lead people to blindly to terrible things. Consider the Germans who, out of fear of the law, committed the atrocities of the Holocaust; or, the participants of the Milgram experiment on obedience to authority figures, in which men were instructed to continuously 'shock' a hidden person, and which, goaded on by the authority figure, continued even until the subject of the punishment (in actuality an actor) 'died.' Those who choose to take action to take down laws that do not uphold the morals of the people as a whole work instead towards a society based on considered values that respect all of its

    Read More

  • Civil Disobedience Dbq

    705 Words  | 3 Pages

    I consider civil disobedience to be an easily-ignored pillar upon which our democracy was founded. In fact we are only established as a nation now because our founding fathers engaged in civil disobedience themselves. We were in a “social contract” of sorts with Great Britain and when we felt that they had not upheld their part of the contract (they did not allow us to create courts to maintain order, or to create a navy to defend ourselves, or to sustain our economy due to an inability to trade with any other countries), Thomas Jefferson concluded that it was our not only our right, but also our duty to break away. And it was Thomas Jefferson that combined all of the works of the great thinkers before him such as Thomas Hobbes, John Locke

    Read More

  • Civil Disobedience Essay

    502 Words  | 3 Pages

    People have a right to oppose oppression either violently or through civil disobedience. Choosing the latter does less harm than the former, and it is therefore the State's job to ensure that it is also the more desirable of the two options. Civil disobedience ought to be permitted, protected, and encouraged by society and the state as an alternative to violent insurrection because civil disobedience can only work toward the bettering of society. Any law that helps to protect the people and their freedoms cannot be violated civilly and those are the only laws that ought to exist. Peaceful resistance does not positively affect a free society or negatively affect it, because there cannot be peaceful resistance in a free society.

    Read More

  • Comparing Crito And King's Argument Against Civil Disobedience

    1111 Words  | 5 Pages

    It can be claimed that it is true that we have a moral responsibility to disobey unjust law, however, in doing so is unjust in itself. Taking into account the argument against harm and that one accepts that doing good is just, we must never intentionally do wrong. It is also true in this case when we are harmed, we must not return a harm for a harm. If these statements are true, in that they are good and just, then civil disobedience must be an unjust act. If doing harm to the law we deem unjust through an act of civil disobedience is considered an evil act, and to do good is to be just, then harming the law is an unjust action.

    Read More

  • Civil Disobedience Warranted

    256 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the United states people wonder, Is the use of civil disobedience warranted in response to laws that some people feel are unjust? It is a very controversial subject, many believe that it is warranted in response to those laws people feel are unjust or unfair, and others believe that it is not warranted. I believe as if it is both, in many ways it can be justified, many people protest in order for their voices to be heard, for them to hae a say in something, but sometimes it can get out of hand and turn violent and due to that other peoplr believe it is not justified. Recently there has been a lot of protests about the desicions and laws president donald trump is making, in example when a young african american man was shot and killed by

    Read More

  • Civil Disobedience Thesis

    1166 Words  | 5 Pages

    The textbook definition of civil disobedience is the refusal to comply with certain laws or to pay taxes and fines, as a peaceful form of political protest. We have seen throughout history the many acts of civil disobedience and it has come in many forms. From the Boston Tea party where the Americans dumped chests of tea into Boston harbor to go against British rule, to the more recent #Me too movement marches to get awareness for victims of sexual abuse. Looking through these events in history I argue that civil disobedience has helped us progress through the years. Civil disobedience should be encouraged to make societal progress although it should not be the first option.

    Read More

  • Civil Disobedience Research Paper

    552 Words  | 3 Pages

    What Form of Civil Disobedience Is the Most Effective to Create Social Change? Do we require social alter? Do we require gracious insubordination? History has appeared us by certain individuals that we do.

    Read More

  • How Did The Sit-Ins Affect The Civil Rights Movement

    909 Words  | 4 Pages

    There are times when people must rebel to make a change. It has happened throughout different movements to change unjust laws, and go against unjust people. One big example of civil disobedience during the civil rights movement were sit-ins. Sit-ins were when people continued to peacefully sit in on a restaurant when they were denied service. It was almost a way of life for many people.

    Read More

  • Summary: The Case Against Civil Disobedience

    1290 Words  | 6 Pages

    Herbert J. Storing, an Associate Professor of Political Science, in “The Case Against Civil Disobedience,” writes, “One of the practical consequences of this institution [civil disobedience] is to divert disobedience and even revolution into the channel of law” (97). What Storing is saying is that civil disobedience will encourage people to break the laws and they will hide under civil disobedience to avoid the law. Also, civil disobedience might split society by creating disagreements with the people, and it could create a political instability. However, Storing fails to see that those who break an unjust law, as discussed above, do not avoid the law, in fact they show respect to the law as they willingly accept the consequences. By accepting the consequences, they show that they are not acting for their own interests but for society’s.

    Read More

  • How Is Civil Disobedience Effective

    1251 Words  | 6 Pages

    Civil Disobedience Thousands of dedicated people march the streets of a huge city, chanting repetitively about needing a change. They proudly hold vibrant signs and banners as they fight for what they believe in. Expressions of determination and hope are visibly spread across their faces. These people aren’t using weapons or violence to fight for their ideas; simply, they are using civil disobedience.

    Read More

  • Essay On Civil Disobedience

    1360 Words  | 6 Pages

    Civil Disobedience is known as breaking the law because you don 't agree with a certain law or have a peaceful protest about that law or what you believe in. An example would be when Mahatma Gandhi walked miles to the Indian ocean as the citizens gathered more and more to fight for there Indian Independence. This occasion was called the Salt March. The reason for The Salt March was a March were all the citizens from India walked with gandhi to fight back for their Independence from the British, since it was taken away from the British.

    Read More

  • Research Paper On Civil Disobedience

    334 Words  | 2 Pages

    All human beings know about civil disobedience, some have even witnessed it throughout history. Civil disobedience is the act to fight for your rights. But there are different kinds of civil disobedient acts. One way is to simply oppose the law without breaking it. One could also break the regulation in order to make a difference.

    Read More

More about Civil Disobedience In Democracy

Open Document