CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE IN JOHN RAWLS’ PHILOSOPHY VIS-À-VIS ITS ROLE IN A DEMOCRATIC SOCIETY

Abstract

It is often the case that people tend to react violently against unjust policies of government. Most times the result is anarchy and conflict between the government and the citizenry. These are issues that ordinarily could have been averted if there was a better and a more organized way of dealing with government or law makers should they make unjust laws. It is as a result of issues like these that John Rawls propounded his theory of Civil Disobedience whereby he maintains that civil disobedience is a necessary tool for social change. As it were, this paper is employing analytic method to bring to the fore the theory of Civil Disobedience in John Rawls’ Philosophy as a way of fostering good governance in any democratic society. This is a view that instead of violent reaction to unjust policies, the citizens are called upon to adopt a non-violent resistance to such laws. In some places, it is crystal clear that unjust policies and laws are made with utmost impunity so much so that the citizens’ fundamental human rights and freedom are trampled upon. This paper concludes that with adequate knowledge of Civil Disobedience as propagated by John Rawls and proper application of it, societies will be better governed.