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Civil Disobedience and Democracy View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by ScholarBank@NUS TOWARDS THE RECONCILIATION OF CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE AND DEMOCRACY LIU HUIJUN (LL. M., People’s University of China) A THESIS SUBMITTED FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY FACULTY OF LAW NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE 2010 Acknowledgements My deepest gratitude goes first and foremost to Professor Victor V. Ramraj, my supervisor, for his constant encouragement and guidance. He was always there to listen and to give advice. He taught me how to ask questions and express my ideas. He has walked me through all the stages of the writing of this thesis. Without his consistent and illuminating instruction, this thesis could not have reached its present form. It is especially hard to direct a student who is from a non-English speaking country, but Victor wins my highest respect for the kindness, patience and dedication he showed to me in the past four years. Besides my supervisor, I would like to thank the rest of my thesis committee for the Doctor Qualifying Examination, Professor Andrew Perry Semester and Professor Michael Hor Yew Meng, who asked me good questions and gave insightful comments. Many thanks also go to many other professors at the law Faculty of NUS for giving me insightful remarks and helping me at any time. And I owe a great debt of gratitude to my fellow students for their company and for providing a continuing supply of advice, encouragement, and support. A struggling author could ask for no finer friends than these: Gatot Prasetyo Soemartono, Ebenezer Oahimire Imonitie Adodo, Edna Selloriquez Pana, i Vincents Okechukwu Benjamin, Victoria Chng Weily, Jason Remington Bonin, Qiu Yang, Lin Lin, Huang Yan, Liu Qi, Cao Haijing, Chen Lei. I would also like to acknowledge the wonderful support provided by the administrative staff of the Law Faculty, especially Normah Mahamood, Zanariah Zainal Abidin M, Chuan Chin Yee and Kuldeep Kaur. My gratitude goes also to the Research Scholarship Foundation of the National University of Singapore for providing me with generous financial support for my research and study in Singapore. Last my thanks would go to my beloved family for their loving considerations and great confidence in me all through these years. ii Table of Contents ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................................................ ⅰ TABLE OF CONTENTS ................................................................................................................... ⅲ SUMMARY .................................................................................................................................... ⅶ CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION ............................................................................... 1 I. CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE AND ITS DEBATES ................................................................................ 1 II. THE RECONCILIATION OF CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE AND DEMOCRACY .............................. 4 III. PLAN OF THE THESIS ............................................................................................................. 8 CHAPTER II: THE DEFINITION OF CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE........................ 12 I． TYPICAL CASES OF CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE ....................................................................... 13 A．Thoreau’s Struggle ............................................................................................................ 15 B. Gandhi and His Movement ................................................................................................. 17 C. Luther King and the Civil Rights Movement ...................................................................... 20 D. Civil Disobedience in the Contemporary World ................................................................. 22 II. THE CHARACTERISTICS OF CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE ............................................................ 27 A. Intentional Breach of Law................................................................................................... 28 B. Predominantly Nonviolent .................................................................................................. 33 C. Publicity .............................................................................................................................. 39 D. Willingness to Accept Punishment ...................................................................................... 43 III. CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE AND RELATED PHENOMENA ......................................................... 48 A. Civil Disobedience and Common Crimes ........................................................................... 49 B. Civil Disobedience and Legal Protest................................................................................. 52 C. Civil Disobedience and Conscientious Objection .............................................................. 54 D. Civil Disobedience and Rebellion ...................................................................................... 56 E. Civil Disobedience and Terrorism ...................................................................................... 58 IV. CONCLUSION : THE DEFINITION OF CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE ............................................ 61 V. SUMMARY .................................................................................................................................. 63 CHAPTER III: THE JUSTIFICATION OF CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE IN DEMOCRACY ........................................................................................................... 65 I. DEMOCRATIC DEFICITS AND JUSTICE DEFICITS ................................................................. 65 A. The Essence of Democracy ................................................................................................. 66 B. The Generation of Democratic and Justice Deficits ........................................................... 70 II. THE NECESSITY OF CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE .......................................................................... 77 A. The Necessity of Civil Disobedience ................................................................................... 78 a. The Commitment to Democracy ..................................................................................... 78 b. The Argument of Lawful Means ..................................................................................... 82 c. The Problem of Violent Means and the Further Justification of Civil Disobedience ....................................................................................................................... 88 d. Two Kinds of Civil Disobedience ................................................................................... 94 B. Individual Conscience and the Justification of Civil Disobedience .................................... 99 iii III. SOME OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED ...................................................................................... 106 A. Rights of Participation and Consent ................................................................................. 106 B. Slippery Slope Argument and Social Chaos ...................................................................... 111 C. Gratitude and Fairness ..................................................................................................... 116 D. The Majority Principle ..................................................................................................... 122 IV. SUMMARY ............................................................................................................................... 127 CHAPTER IV: THE ROLE OF CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE IN DEMOCRACY ......................................................................................................... 129 I. THE POSITIVE FUNCTIONS OF CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE IN A DEMOCRACY ..................... 130 A. The Democracy-enhancing Function of Civil Disobedience ............................................ 130 B. The Democracy-stabilizing Function of Civil Disobedience ............................................ 135 a. Civil Disobedience as a Safety Valve ............................................................................. 136 b. Civil Disobedience Can Right Injustices ....................................................................... 138 C. The Degeneration-preventing Function of Civil Disobedience ........................................ 141 a. The Degeneration of Democracy ................................................................................... 142 b. The Desanctifying Effect of Civil Disobedience ........................................................... 145 D. The Function of Cultivating Democratic Citizens ............................................................ 148 a. The Spirit of Participation ............................................................................................. 149 b. Dignity of Human Person .............................................................................................. 151 c. Therapeutic Effects on the Victims ................................................................................ 152 II. THE MECHANISM OF CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE ..................................................................... 154 A. Publicity through Dramatization ...................................................................................... 155 a. The Publicity Power of Civil Disobedience .................................................................
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