Civil Disobedience

St. James Encyclopedia of Pop Culture, Jan 29, 2002 by Gordon Neal Diem

Civil disobedience is a nonviolent, deliberate, and conspicuous violation of a law or social norm, or a violation of the orders of civil authorities, in order to generate publicity and public awareness of an issue. Protesters directly confront the rule and confront authorities who would enforce it, and demand a change in the rule. Civil disobedience communicates the protesters' unity and strength of interest in an issue and provides evidence of their commitment and willingness to sacrifice for the cause. It also presents a latent threat of more overt action if the regime fails to act on the issue.

Civil disobedience is a form of political participation available to citizens without the money, media support, lobbying resources, voting strength, political skills, or political access necessary to influence decision-makers through more traditional means. The tactic was used by Mahatma Gandhi in the 1940s to secure the end of British colonial rule in India; by Martin Luther King, Jr. and other American civil rights leaders in the 1960s to end legal racial segregation and to secure voting rights for African Americans; and by non-voting age college students during the 1960s to protest America's war in Vietnam. Civil disobedience brings people into the political system who were previously outside the system and is one of the few tactics available to empower concerned citizens who lack any other means to press their demands for change. Social minorities and deviant subcultures use civil disobedience to challenge and change the norms of society or to demand their independence from the rules of society.

Civil disobedience usually takes one of three forms. First, civil disobedience may take the form of deliberate and purposeful violation of a specific targeted statute or social norm in order to focus popular and media attention on the rule, to encourage others to resist the rule, and to encourage authorities to change the rule. Examples include 1960s American civil rights sit-ins and demands for service at segregated lunch counters, anti-war protesters refusing to submit to selective service calls, and feminists publicly removing restrictive brassieres in protest of clothing norms. In the 1970s, trucker convoys deliberately exceeded the 55-mile-per-hour federal highway speed limit to protest the limit. According to Saul Alinsky in Rules for Radicals, this tactic is effective only in non-authoritarian and non-totalitarian regimes with a free press to publicize the violation of the law and basic civil rights to prevent civil authorities and social majorities from overreacting to the violation.

Second, civil disobedience may take the form of passive resistance in which protesters refuse to respond to the orders of authorities but are otherwise in full compliance with the law. Examples have included civil rights protesters and anti-war activists who ignore police orders to disperse and force police to physically carry them from a public protest site. Feminists have resisted social norms by refusing to shave their legs. The organization Civilian Based Defense promoted passive resistance as a national defense strategy and suggested that the threat of withholding cooperation and engaging in active non-cooperation with the enemy may be as effective a deterrent to an invader's aggression as the use of military force.

Third, civil disobedience may take the form of non-violent illegal activity in which protesters disrupt activities they oppose and seek to be arrested, punished, and even martyred to gain publicity and to influence public opinion. Examples have included anti-war protesters who trespass on military installations and illegally seize military property by chaining themselves to it, radical environmentalists who "spike" trees with nails to disrupt logging activities, and animal rights activists who throw blood on persons wearing animal fur coats.

Civil disobedience is distinctly different from nonconformity, social pathology, eccentricity, or social disorganization. Nonconformity is willful violation of a rule because the values established in the rule are contrary to the social, cultural, or moral values and norms of a subgroup of the civil society--but the violation is not intended to encourage a change in the rule. For example, a fundamentalist Mormon practices polygamy because he believes religious proscriptions require him to do so, not because he seeks to change or protest the marriage laws of the state. Social pathology is the failure to conform to civil law because failures in the individual's socialization and education processes leave the individual normless and, therefore, free to pursue his personal self-interest and selfish desires without concern for law. Eccentricity is socially encouraged nonconformance in which a cultural hero, genius, intellectual, or artist is granted cultural license to violate the law based on the person's unique status or contributions to society. Finally, social disorganization is the failure of the political or social system to enforce its rules because authority has become ineffective or has been destroyed in war or revolution, leaving individuals in a state of anarchy and licensed to make their own rules.