Abstract

Available from UMI in association with The British Library. Requires signed TDF. ;The Thesis examines the nature of civil disobedience as an act of protest through the examination of the nature of political activity generally. Initially, the concern is with traditional accounts of civil disobedience which purport to offer definitions of civil disobedience and its characteristics. However, when we examine the activities of those that have been called civil disobedients such as Mahatma Gandhi or Martin Luther King then we find that their actions do not always correspond to the theories of civil disobedience. This, in part, may be due to the general problem of defining political activity. ;However, civil disobedience is said to be concerned with the relationship between the individual and the state and with the specific question of whether or not the individual can disobey the state. The Thesis examines the nature of, in particular, obligations and rights in addressing this question. The works of Hobbes and Locke are utilised along with more modern theorists such as Hart and Rawls in an attempt to understand the role that such concepts may play in analysing our political activity. ;It is also often considered, in traditional accounts of civil disobedience, that its role is to be found primarily within democratic regimes and of particular importance is the effect that such a form of protest may have on a democratic regime. This Thesis thus examines the nature of the democratic state and the effect that civil disobedience may be said to have upon democratic values. ;Finally, inadequacies in traditional definitions of civil disobedience lead to the suggestion that it may be more fruitful to see civil disobedience in terms of political communication located within a tradition of political protest and the language of that tradition. A concern with political language and the depiction of political activity thus runs throughout the Thesis and is presented as a further dimension to understanding the concept of civil disobedience