Civil disobedience: a dispute of concepts

Adopting a genealogical methodology, this paper aims to unveil the historical intricacies of civil disobedience’s many conceptualizations, particularly the ones related to the Thoureaivian concept and the liberal model of civil disobedience. As suggested by Hanson, there has been a long process of s...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor: Lima, Bárbara Nascimento de
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2023
País:Brasil
Institución:Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG)
Repositorio:(Des)troços - Revista de pensamento radical
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:periodicos.ufmg.br:article/44936
Acceso en línea:https://periodicos.ufmg.br/index.php/revistadestrocos/article/view/44936
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Desobediência civil
Henry David Thoreau
modelo liberal de desobediência civil
desobediência civil radical
ação política
civil disobedience
liberal model of civil disobedience
radical civil disobedience
political action
Descripción
Sumario:Adopting a genealogical methodology, this paper aims to unveil the historical intricacies of civil disobedience’s many conceptualizations, particularly the ones related to the Thoureaivian concept and the liberal model of civil disobedience. As suggested by Hanson, there has been a long process of selective appropriation of Thoreau’s Resistance to civil government - later republished as Civil disobedience - that goes from the editors until Gandhi. By the same token, there has been a second process, not of selective appropriation per se, but of colonization in which the authors of the liberal model of civil disobedience imposes a series of theoretical constraints in the form of constitutive elements that ought to be fulfilled in order for a political movement to be considered a legitimate case of civil disobedience. This has resulted in civil disobedients being required to recognize the legitimacy of legal and political systems and to demand changes only within the boundaries of the rule of law. Conversely, we suggest a different – and radical – approach to civil disobedience, one that acknowledges that civil disobedience’s conceptualization should be practical-base, i.e., determined from real political actions and not necessarily centered on legal foundations or normative status.