What are our responsibilities in the face of injustice? Many philosophers argue for what is called political obligation—the duty to obey the law of nearly just, legitimate states. Even proponents of civil disobedience generally hold that, given this moral duty, breaking the law requires justification. By contrast, activists from Henry David Thoreau to the Movement for Black Lives have long recognized a responsibility to resist injustice. Taking seriously this activism, this book wrestles with the problem of political obligation in real world societies that harbor injustice. It argues that the very grounds supporting a duty to obey the law—grounds such as the natural duty of justice, the principle of fairness, the Samaritan duty, and associative duties—also impose obligations of resistance under unjust social conditions. The work therefore expands political obligation to include a duty to resist injustice even in legitimate states, and further shows that under certain real-world conditions, this duty to resist demands principled disobedience. Against the mainstream in public, legal, and philosophical discourse, the book argues that such disobedience need not always be civil. Sometimes, covert, violent, evasive, or offensive acts of lawbreaking can be justified, even required. Illegal assistance to undocumented migrants, leaks of classified information, hacktivism sabotage, armed self-defense, guerrilla art, and other modes of resistance are viable and even necessary forms of resistance. There are limits: principle alone does not justify lawbreaking. But uncivil disobedience can sometimes be required in the effort to resist injustice.
Author(s): Candice Delmas
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Year: 2018
Language: English
Pages: ix, 295 pages
City: New York
Copyright
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Political Obligation(s)
Riding for Freedom
A Duty to Resist
Key Concepts
Our Political Obligations
1. Principled Disobedience
Disobedience in the Civil Rights Style
Theory and History
Rawls’s Theory
History and Ideology
Inclusive Accounts of Civil Disobedience
A Matrix of Resistance
2. In Defense of Uncivil Disobedience
Constraints
In Defense of (Un)civil Disobedience
The Duty to Obey the Law
Free-Riding
The Rule of Law
Democracy
Who’s Afraid of Incivility?
Effectiveness
Forward-Looking Concerns
(In)civility and Civic Friendship
Implications
3. Justice and Democracy
Contexts of Injustice
Disrespect
Wrongs to Nonmembers
Wrongs to Nonmembers
Official Misconduct
Public Ignorance
(Dis)obedience and Democratic Authority
Political Obligations
Education
Protest
Covert Disobedience
Vigilantism
Government Whistleblowing
Objections
Demanding , Difficult, and Undesirable
Against Uncivil Disobedience
Transnational Obligations
4. Fairness
Fair Play and Injustice
Fair-Play Arguments for the Duty to Obey
Injustice
Free-Riding
The Negative Argument
The Radical Reform Argument
The Resistance Argument
Two Arguments for Solidarity
Costs of Resistance
5. Samaritanism
The Samaritan Duty and the Duty to Obey the Law
Illegal Samaritan Rescues
Samaritan Disobedience
Persistent Samaritan Perils
Citizens as Passers-by
Proximity
Awareness
Rescue through Reform
Principled Disobedience
Objections
Samaritans’ Judgments
Unreasonable Costs
Individuals’ Inefficacy
Stretching the Samaritan Duty
Rescue, Charity, or Justice?
Perfect or Imperfect?
Identified v. Potential Victims
Particularity
6. Political Association and Dignity
Associative Political Obligation
Dworkin’s Liberal-Associativist Account
Dignitary Associative Political Obligations
Rectification
Communication
Assertion
Solidarity
Objections
Too Demanding
Burdening and Blaming the Victim
Letting the Oppressed Fight
Delineating Political Relationships
7. Acting on Political Obligations
Obstacles
Seeing and Denying
Not Seeing and Justifying
Some Caveats
Implications
Belief
Dialog and Ambivalence
Thinking and Resisting Together
Civic Virtues
Conclusion
Postscript: Resistance in the Age of Trump
Citizens’ Political Obligations
Justice and Democracy
Fairness
Samaritan Duty
Dignitary Political Membership
Officials’ Resistance from Within
Notes
Introduction
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Conclusion
Postscript
Index
