Civil disobedience is a type of manifestation legally accepted against the regime imposed by an oppressive government, when a group of citizens refuse to obey certain laws, in the form of protest, because they consider them immoral or unjust.
The concept of Civil Disobedience was defined by the American Henry David Thoreau (1817 – 1862), a poet, naturalist, historian, philosopher, and activist who became known for fighting abusive collection of taxes by the American government with the objective of financing the war against Mexico, during the first decades of the century XIX.
Popularly known as the “father of anarchism,” Thoreau expounded his philosophy on civil disobedience in an eponymous essay first published in 1849.
Unlike common disobedience, which aims to end order and social harmony (a criminal act), civil disobedience has an innovative character, that is, not to destroy the government, but to improve it according to the real needs of the people.
know more about anarchism and anarchy.
See also some characteristics of an anarchist person.
For an act of disobedience to be interpreted as a political protest, it must be based on arguments that support a justification in favor of ethics and morals. As a rule, there are three circumstances that favor civil disobedience: the application of a unfair law, one illegitimate law (accepted by those who do not have the right to legislate), and a invalid law (of unconstitutional nature).
According to the principle of democratic civility, citizens have a moral duty to follow the laws, but legislators (the government) also have a duty to create just laws, that is, that follow the constitution and the principles of civil rights and social.
Civil disobedience is a peaceful protest method, which helped to influence the work and actions of important personalities throughout the 19th and 20th century, such as the Martin Luther King Jr., Leo Tolstoy and Mahatma Gandhi, for example.
Currently, in the legal sphere, civil disobedience is part of the so-called Right of Resistance of citizens, as well as the Right to Strike and the Right to Revolution, which serve to guarantee the protection of the sovereignty of the people, should it be threatened by an oppressive regime.