Uncivil Disobedience

2020 ◽  
pp. 9-44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Candice Delmas
Keyword(s):  
Civil Disobedience ◽  
The Third ◽  
Potential Value ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
Democratic Societies

There is a common tendency to categorize as civil disobedience acts of resistance that one approves of, even when the acts in question violate common marks of civility. This chapter proposes a different strategy, namely, to think about uncivil disobedience—to wit, principled lawbreaking that is covert, evasive, violent, or offensive. The first section explains the problems with the two main approaches to civil disobedience and sketches a basic conceptual account of uncivil disobedience. The rest of the chapter seeks to justify at least some forms of uncivil disobedience even in supposedly legitimate, liberal democratic states like ours. The second section argues that uncivil disobedience can do much of what civil disobedience does, while the third section argues that uncivil disobedience can do and say valuable things that civil disobedience cannot do or say. In particular, it identifies the potential value of incivility for subordinated members in democratic societies allegedly committed to mutual reciprocity.

In Defense of Uncivil Disobedience

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Candice Delmas
Keyword(s):  
Civil Disobedience ◽  
General Process ◽  
Potential Value ◽  
Democratic Societies

Chapter 2 makes a case for the justifiability of some acts of uncivil disobedience—acts that are covert, evasive, violent, or offensive. After sketching some general process- and goal-related constraints on uncivil disobedience, the chapter examines some traditional arguments against disobedience in general and argues that the responses offered by champions of civil disobedience can also justify some types of uncivil disobedience. It then responds to arguments for preferring civil over uncivil disobedience and identifies the potential value of incivility for subordinated members in democratic societies allegedly committed to mutual reciprocity. The chapter concludes by sketching the implications of the account with respect to society’s treatment of uncivil disobedients.

Deterrence and Democracy

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard A. Falkenrath
Keyword(s):  
War On Terror ◽  
Terrorist Attacks ◽  
Global War On Terror ◽  
Counter Terrorism ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
The Us ◽  
Democratic Societies ◽  
Global War ◽  
Taking Action ◽  
The Given

This chapter examines strategy and deterrence and traces the shift from deterrence by ‘punishment’ to deterrence by ‘denial’ in Washington’s conduct of the Global War on Terror. The former rested on an assumption that the consequences of an action would serve as deterrents. The latter may carry messages of possible consequences, but these are delivered by taking action that removes the capabilities available to opponents – in the given context, the Islamist terrorists challenging the US. Both approaches rest on credibility, but are more complex in the realm of counter-terrorism, where the US authorities have no obvious ‘return to sender’ address and threats to punish have questionable credibility. In this context, denial offers a more realistic way of preventing terrorist attacks. Yet, the advanced means available to the US are deeply ethically problematic in liberal democratic societies. However, there would likely be even bigger questions if governments failed to act.

scholarly journals Security and democratic equality

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian Milstein
Keyword(s):  
Civil Liberty ◽  
Terrorist Attacks ◽  
Liberal Democracies ◽  
Democratic Community ◽  
Police Powers ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
Democratic Equality ◽  
Democratic Societies ◽  
Fear Mongering ◽  
American Cities

Abstract After a recent spate of terrorist attacks in European and American cities, liberal democracies are reintroducing emergency securitarian measures (ESMs) that curtail rights and/or expand police powers. Political theorists who study ESMs are familiar with how such measures become instruments of discrimination and abuse, but the fundamental conflict ESMs pose for not just civil liberty but also democratic equality still remains insufficiently explored. Such phenomena are usually explained as a function of public panic or fear-mongering in times of crisis, but I show that the tension between security and equality is in fact much deeper and more general. It follows a different logic than the more familiar tension between security and liberty, and it concerns not just the rule of law in protecting liberty but also the role of law in integrating new or previously subjected groups into a democratic community. As liberal-democratic societies become increasingly diverse and multicultural in the present era of mass immigration and global interconnectedness, this tension between security and equality is likely to become more pronounced.

scholarly journals Russian Cyber Information Warfare: International Distribution and Domestic Control

MCU Journal ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 112-127
Author(s):  
Lev Topor ◽  
Alexander Tabachnik
Keyword(s):  
Information Warfare ◽  
Main Argument ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Informational Influence ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
Foreign Influence ◽  
International Distribution ◽  
Democratic Societies ◽  
Hearts And Minds

Cyber information warfare (IW) is a double-edged sword. States use IW to shape the hearts and minds of foreign societies and policy makers. However, states are also prone to foreign influence through IW. This assumption applies mainly to liberal democratic societies. The question examined in this article is how Russia uses IW on other countries but protects itself from the same activities. The authors’ main argument is that while Russia executes influence operations and IW in cyberspace, it strives for uncompromising control over its domestic cyberspace, thus restricting undesirable informational influence over its population.

Liberalism, Terrorism and the Politics of Fear

Politics ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 200-206 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris Sparks
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
The Political ◽  
Liberal Democracies ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
Politics Of Fear ◽  
Democratic Societies ◽  
Political Health ◽  
The Impact

This article considers the impact of terror and fear on the political health of liberal democratic societies. It examines the strategic use of terror to produce a politics of fear through an exploration of current Western reactions to terrorism. The argument is developed through a presentation of a three-part map of the politics of fear constituted by the instigation of fear, the (attempted) eradication of fear and the management of fear. Central to this presentation is an analysis of the destabilising effects the introduction of terror has on civil society and government, and of the effective ways of responding to it. Running through the presentation is an analysis of the constitution of terror and fear, their relationship to each other and to the general insecurities which beset liberal democracies.

N.Ya. Danilevsky’s Participation in M.N. Katkov’s Periodicals in 1880s

2020 ◽  
Vol 58 ◽  
pp. 135-148
Author(s):  
Elena V. Perevalova
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Charles Darwin ◽  
The Third ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
The Common

The article analyzes the participation of N.Ya. Danilevsky in the periodicals of the authoritative conservative publicist of the 1860–1880s M.N. Katkov – “Russian Vestnik” magazine and “Moscow Vedomosti” journal. The author identifies the reasons that brought together the thinker and the editors of influential conservative periodicals and analyzes the common views of Danilevsky and Katkov on a number of important issues of Russian domestic and foreign policy. Special attention is paid to the “Slavic question”, which was differently interpreted by Danilevsky and the writers of the Katkov’s circle, however that did not prevent the thinker to participate in those periodicals in the 1880s. The author of the article attempts to determine the role of the fragments of the third, unfinished part of Danilevsky’s work “Darwinism” published after his death in the «Russian Vestnik», in the polemics over the teachings of Charles Darwin that went on in Katkov's periodicals and the liberal democratic press in the 1880s.

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