Civil Disobedience

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

Civil disobedience as a political tactic and social process increases in popularity and use as society decreases its reliance on violence and force to achieve political goals or to gain the advantage in social conflict or competition. It also increases in popularity when political outsiders seek to assert themselves in the political process and find all other avenues of political participation beyond their abilities and resources or find all other avenues prohibited to them by political insiders or by civil authorities.