Civil Disobedience

Civil disobedience is the deliberate disobeying of a law to advance a moral principle or change government policy. Those who practice civil disobedience are willing to accept the consequences of their lawbreaking as a means of furthering their cause. Henry David Thoreau first articulated the tenets of civil disobedience in an 1849 essay, “On the Duty of Civil Disobedience.” He argued that when conscience and law do not coincide, individuals have the obligation to promote justice by disobeying the law. Civil disobedience was a major tactic in the women’s suffrage movement, the campaign for the independence of India, the civil rights movement, and the abolition of apartheid in South Africa.