Civil Disobedience
Also by Lawrence Quill LIBERTY AFTER LIBERALISM Civic Republicanism in a Global Age
Civil Disobedience (Un)Common Sense in Mass Democracies Lawrence Quill Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science San José State University, USA
Lawrence Quill 2009 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2009 978-0-230-55505-1 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6 10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2009 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave and Macmillan are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-36395-7 ISBN 978-0-230-23436-9 (ebook) DOI 10.1057/9780230234369 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Quill, Lawrence, 1971 Civil disobedience : (un)common sense in mass democracies / Lawrence Quill. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Civil disobedience. I. Title. JC328.3.Q55 2009 303.6 1 dc22 2008052858 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 09
For Haleema-Jazmin for she alone knows.
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Contents Acknowledgements ix 1 What Civil Disobedience is (and is not) 1 1.1 Introduction 2 1.2 Civil disobedience in the new century 3 1.3 A contested concept 7 1.4 Dimensions of disobedience 19 1.5 Why (un)common sense? 21 1.6 Overview 23 2 Obedience: Ancient and Modern 25 2.1 In the beginning 26 2.2 After the beginning : the case of Socrates 31 2.3 A life of one s own? 38 2.4 A matter of fact world 43 2.5 Conclusion 49 3 Appealing to Heaven 52 3.1 The pirate and the emperor 52 3.2 Old wine in new bottles 56 3.3 A natural duty to obey 62 3.4 Resistance makes us what we are 68 3.5 Conclusion 76 4 The Politics of Perception 78 4.1 The collective imagination 78 4.2 Theatrum mundi 81 4.3 Contr Un 87 4.4 The political construction of contemporary reality 93 4.5 Government interrupted 98 4.6 Conclusion 103 5 Civil Disobedience, Alienation, Political Rupture 106 5.1 The end of revolutions? 106 5.2 Life in one dimension 109 5.3 The view from elsewhere 116 5.4 Disobedience in our liquid world? 123 5.5 Deviating from the script 131 vii
viii Contents 6 Disobedience: International or Cosmopolitan? 134 6.1 When patriotism is not enough 134 6.2 No externalities without representation 137 6.3 People power or superpower? 146 6.4 Institutionalizing resistance? 154 6.5 Terra incognita 161 7 Conclusion 164 Notes 167 Bibliography 178 Index 193
Acknowledgements I would like to thank the editors at Palgrave Macmillan, particularly Alison Howson, Gemma d Arcy Hughes, and Amy Lankester-Owen for their support and encouragement during the writing and editorial process. I would also like to thank Shirley Tan for her expert assistance with the manuscript. Thanks must also go to my home department of political science at San José State University, CA. All of my colleagues deserve credit, in particular Professor James Brent for his support during the two years it took to complete the project, and Professor Kenneth Peter, an outstanding colleague and scholar who read an early version of the manuscript and provided wonderful insight and advice. Thanks also go to those students at San José State, especially in the classes Modern Political Thought and Contemporary Political Thought during 2006 8, in particular: Andrew Siegler, Stacy Remer, Mollie Downs, and Alen Kalta. Finally, I would like to acknowledge those who have remained constant throughout and without whom life would be all the poorer: Barry Clarke, Hasmet Uluorta, Mark Gonnerman, John Pollard, Matthew Sterling, Lee Phillips, Neil Philbrick, and Debra L. Klein. To them, and to many others who provided the gift of conversation, along with frequent outbreaks of hilarity, I say Thank You! Lawrence Quill Palo Alto, CA and Salzburg, Austria 2008