Civil Disobedience

Definition

Civil disobedience is the active, professed refusal of a citizen to obey certain laws, demands, orders or commands of a government.

Analogy

Imagine if you were playing a game and the rules were unfair. Instead of continuing to play by those rules, you decide to break them on purpose - not out of rebellion, but to show that the rules need changing. That's what civil disobedience is like.

Related terms

Nonviolent resistance: The practice of achieving goals through symbolic protests, civil disobedience, economic or political noncooperation. This concept often goes hand-in-hand with civil disobedience.

Martin Luther King Jr.: An American clergyman and leader in the Civil Rights Movement who used civil disobedience as part of his strategy for social change.

Gandhi: A political ethicist who employed nonviolent resistance to lead successful campaigns for India's independence from British rule. His philosophy influenced many others including Martin Luther King Jr., and he also practiced civil disobedience.