Reasonable Disobedience

Abstract

Speaker: Andrei Bespalov - Pompeu Fabra University Political liberals hold that citizens ought to justify their exercise of political power to one another on the grounds of reasons that all of them may reasonably be expected to accept. On one interpretation, this Rawlsian duty of civility allows only deliberative, non-coercive means of political contestation. It prohibits disruptive protest and, thereby, exacerbates the disadvantages of those citizens who are subject to injustice. Therefore, the victims of injustice should be relieved of the duty of civility. I contend that disruptive political disobedience is compatible with the Rawlsian duty of civility, because this duty does not entirely prohibit citizens from subjecting one another to coercion. It only prohibits coercion that has not been reasonably justified to the coerced. I specify the conditions under which disruptive political disobedience is reasonably justified, and explain why it is important to reconcile it with the idea of civility, instead of simply relieving the oppressed of the duty to be civil.