Definition of Civil Disobedience

The laws that govern a political system are designed to be respected and enforced by all citizens. In principle, all law pretends to be fair and reasonable. However, the idea of ​​justice does not always coincide with the content of some laws. When this happens, a reaction against compliance with the law can be raised. This reaction is known by a denomination, civil disobedience.

Moral convictions can collide with legality

Most legal systems contemplate the option of expelling from the home those who do not comply with the mortgage or rental contract and do not pay their fees. Sometimes the phenomenon of eviction has an evident inhuman component and for this reason it can be understood that someone defends the option of civil disobedience.

In other words, it could be considered legitimate not to pay a mortgage when someone does not have the financial means to do so.

Military service is compulsory in many countries. Despite this, there are people who refuse to use weapons because their ethical values ​​are impeded.

In some episodes of the story the population civil has refused to comply with the laws. In the 20th century there were two paradigmatic moments in this sense: when Gandhi proposed passive resistance as a mechanism of opposition to the laws of the British and when Martin Luther King led the opposition to racial segregation in United United.

In both circumstances, the attitude disobedient of the citizens was the end of a legislation unfair.

As a general criterion, those who propose a form of civil disobedience claim that the laws that considered unfair are finally abolished and replaced by others in which there is a proposal fair.

The origin of civil disobedience dates back to ancient times

In the literature classical Greek there is a character that illustrates the debate on the disobedience of the laws. This character is Antigone and is part of the tragedy with the same title written by Sophocles.

In this story, Antigone defends a fundamental thesis: the laws of the tyrant king who governs the city of Thebes are unjust and, therefore, it is legitimate to disobey them. The tyrant Creon has decided to prohibit the funeral rite to honor Antigone's brother, but she considers that this law has to be broken.

Her proposal is not accepted by her sister Ismene, who defends that her rule Creon's must be fulfilled.

The debate between the two represents the controversy between two positions that are difficult to reconcile: the need to respect the laws as a basic principle for the coexistence wave legitimacy in the breach of a law when it is clearly unfair.

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