Justified Lawbreaking

What kinds of strategies toward laws and political procedures are those facing persistent injustice permitted to adopt? While civil disobedience is straightforward, other cases are more challenging. This chapter outlines a set of possible strategies, and it evaluates two in depth: circumvention and nullification. In some circumstances, political actors might improve their own conditions by circumventing certain kinds of laws or political procedures, such as through illegal forms of lobbying intended to influence election outcomes. The chapter argues that circumvention of electoral or other laws would be permissible where it can reduce profound harms. The chapter then turns to the case of armed nullification, in which an Aboriginal group takes up arms at the borders of its territories to prevent the exercise of state laws or policies. The chapter argues that such nullification is often permissible, even if it must be pursued carefully to avoid harm to Aboriginal communities themselves.

Envisioning the Future

This chapter argues that those facing persistent injustice have extended permissions to experiment with the social arrangements to be built for future generations, since profound injustices predictably frustrate human flourishing and blockade choices about how to balance multiple aspects of social life. At the same time, it suggests reasons for caution about strongly detailed ideals of what the future should hold, since such blueprints can lead to the pursuit of political goals that are neither achievable nor desirable. The chapter argues that ideal visions can help to make vivid the implications of certain values and their relation to one another, but that such visions should be treated as akin to literary works, which expand the imagination without directly describing a world to be brought about. It argues for the viability of Aboriginal “self-determination” as a protean, midrange goal that maintains space for continued agency and experimentation over time.

Conclusion: Political Philosophy and Political Change

The political environment to which Aboriginal people must respond has been constructed by others, and it does not respond easily or quickly to deliberative calls for change. Rather, it must be navigated instead, despite the difficulties and discomfort associated with doing so. The concluding chapter revisits the central claims of the book as a whole, arguing for the importance of careful normative analysis where the political choices of disadvantaged political actors are involved. It defends the importance of strongly contextualized work on the ethics of political action by groups facing particular patterns of persistent injustice and responding to particular political opportunity structures, while recommending nuanced comparative work on the ethical choices available to groups facing different patterns of injustice than those experienced by Aboriginal peoples (e.g., African Americans in the United States).

Deliberation and Political Strategy

Theorists of deliberative democracy often argue that political actors entering the public sphere should speak openly and fully in pursuing their political goals. These requirements do not seem appropriate for those facing conditions of persistent injustice, however, especially when they encounter patterns of institutionally created discursive domination. Focusing on the interplay between legal doctrines of Aboriginal title and broader patterns of discourse within Canada, this chapter argues for the moral permissibility of strategic and deceptive speech when this may facilitate the realization of arrangements that are more just. The chapter argues that acknowledging the permissibility of deceptive strategies will often allow disadvantaged actors to think more clearly about their political goals, rather than becoming intellectually co-opted by engagement with state institutions.

Self-Care and Proportionality

Within unjust societies, the political claims of groups facing persistent injustice may come in conflict with one another. Even if it would be possible for all of their claims to be resolved at once within an ideal world, real political choices will often require decisions about how strongly to seek improvements for one’s own group at the expense of others. Can groups seek to reduce their own disadvantage even if this blockades the efforts of other groups to achieve justice, or even collaterally worsens their situation? The chapter argues that giving priority to such self-care is permissible, and perhaps required. While disadvantaged social actors should strive to build wider coalitions where they can, competing groups can reasonably seek to improve conditions for their own members first where such alliances do not emerge. The chapter illustrates with examples of directly competing Aboriginal land claims, as well as more indirectly competing political situations.

Introduction: Word Warriors and Political Action

This is a book about political action within conditions of persistent injustice. The introduction outlines questions about the ethics of political action, and it describes the model of political theorizing to be used throughout the book. To give these questions greater immediacy, the chapter draws on Dale Turner’s argument that Aboriginal scholars and political actors should see themselves as “word warriors,” adopting a watchful and strategic attitude toward state political structures and major social institutions. It outlines the grounds that Aboriginal actors have for approaching politics in this way, and it describes the course that the book’s chapters will follow.

The Ethics of Political Action

This chapter frames questions about the ethics of political action in relation to Rawlsian ideal theory, which generally does not address those who are directly suffering from injustices. While Rawls defended civil disobedience within nearly just societies, the chapter argues that a broader palette of political strategies seems permissible where significant injustices continue to exist. It argues that those facing persistent injustice have special permissions for forms of political action that are not available to others. The second half of the chapter focuses on the ways in which political opportunity structures set parameters for political action, and examines the ways in which those who undertake political action may transform themselves without realizing this. The chapter concludes by considering how to proceed in evaluating political action when an effective ideal theory does not yet exist for Aboriginal rights.