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TOPIC:-
Issue of Political Obligation and
Civil Disobedience
Civil Disobedience
1. Historical Evolution
2. Justification of civil disobedience
3. Civil disobedience-:Gandhi , Thoreau,Rawls
4. Assessment
Political obligation is the central or fundamental
issue of political philosophy. By political obligation,
theorists generally mean a moral requirement to
obey the law of one’s state or one’s country.
Traditionally, this has been viewed as a requirement
to obey the law because it is the law—that is, because
of the authority of the legislator, as opposed to the
content of particular laws.
According to John Locke , political obligation must
stem from an individual's own consent and so must
be self-assumed , based on a specific action or
performance by each individual himself.
• Early History
Amongst the ancient Greeks, there were no rights
people were only supposed to do their duty as it was
believed that if every one will do their part
everything will fall into place. The subject of
political obligation received little attention. The
person was viewed as a part of society, which was
conceptually prior to him, and on which he
depended to achieve the moral and intellectual
development central to the good life. Against this
backdrop, at least on a theoretical level, the need to
obey the law was accepted almost without question.
The main exceptions centre on Socrates’ trial and
imprisonment, as recounted by Plato, especially
Socrates’ purported dialogue with the Laws of
Athens in the Crito. Having been condemned to
death and facing imminent execution, Socrates
inquires into the rights and wrongs of escaping from
prison. He puts into the Law’s mouth a series of
arguments for obedience, based on claims that to
disobey would harm the state and, strikingly, an
argument for agreement. Because Socrates has
stayed in Athens for so long when he had
opportunities to go elsewhere, he has agreed to obey
the laws .
• Divine Theory
• Transactional Account
(i) . Fairness
A political community is a cooperative scheme that
is geared towards the production of benefits for its
members: security, transport, clean water, and so
forth. The venture is fruitful in producing these
benefits because those participating observe certain
restrictions and pay their taxes. The demands of
fairness thus yield political obligation. From this
Nozick draws the conclusion that one does not
acquire an obligation to cooperate with a scheme
simply by benefiting from its labours . Fairness
theory purports to show that virtually all individuals
have in fact incurred political obligations without
performing any consensual act .
(ii ) . Gratitude
(iii) Consent
On this theory, a citizen that freely consents to his
government’s authority binds himself to obedience.
Though few deny this, the difficulty with consent
theory is identifying an action in the personal history
of most individuals that might count as a valid token
of consent.
A popular alternative token of consent is that of
democratic participation or voting. Weak and strong
formulations of democratic consent theory can be
distinguished.
Weak version says that , since we have voted for the
candidate then it’s our obligation to consent to his
authority.
The strong version states that by participating in a
democratic election fully aware that the purpose of
the procedure is to invest authority in the candidate
that wins the most votes, one consents to the
procedure as a way of determining who will wield
political power and therefore agrees to be bound by
its outcome whichever way it goes. Under this
alternative, a democratically elected government is
owed obedience by every citizen that partook in the
election by which it was empowered.
But every democratic country contains citizens that
are, for whatever reason, unable or unwilling to vote.
This leaves a large portion of any democratic
populace unbound by the duty to obey the law, even
on the stronger formulation of democratic consent
theory.
• Natural Duty
• Associative Theory
CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE
Ko Ko
The concept of civil disobedience is grounded in
justice and common good and it’s end must be a
limited one .
Gandhi
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) broadened the scope of
civil disobedience and internationalized its practice. He
made civil disobedience the primary moral force behind
his leadership of the Indian nationalist movement. He
called his concept of civil disobedience as the doctrine of
satyagraha or true force. He introduced six elements
into the theory and practice of civil disobedience:
Thoreau
The writer who made the theory famous, put it into
practice, and gave the practice the name "civil
disobedience" was Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862).
Two principles underlie Thoreau's conception of civil
disobedience. The first is that the authority of the
government depends on the consent of the governed. The
second is that justice is superior to the laws enacted by the
government, and the individual has the right to judge
whether a given law reflects or flouts justice. In the latter
case the individual has the duty to disobey the law and
accept the consequences of the disobedience non-violently.
In Thoreau's case, he judged that the laws upholding
slavery and supporting the Mexican War (1846–1848)
were unjust. He chose to spend a night in jail rather than
submit to the unjust laws.
Rawls
Assessment
These debates raise complicated moral issues which we
cannot resolve here. From a political point of view, they
are a reminder of the point of law and the state – to
provide a way that we can live together peacefully even
though we disagree about what is right and wrong.
According to Hobbes and Locke, the most important value
that the state protects is security. Therefore, to violate this
value by using violence when one disagrees with the law is
to challenge the very foundations of the state . Even if we
have objection with state or any of it’s law we must follow
a proper code of conduct to raise our demand because with
violence one can achieve nothing .