Civil Disobedience
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Civil Disobedience William E.Scheuerman Polity Press, Cambridge, 2018, 204pp., ISBN-13: 978-1-5095-1862-3 Contemporary Political Theory (2019). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41296-018-00301-z
The philosophical discussion about civil disobedience has reached a curious juncture. On the one hand, there has been a wave of recent writing on the topic, which builds upon and updates the earlier explosion of philosophical interest triggered by the protest movements of the sixties and seventies (see, e.g. Brownlee, 2012; Smith, 2013). On the other hand, it is notable that much of this scholarship challenges civil disobedience, suggesting that philosophers should follow the lead of those activists who reject the label in favour of apparently more radical notions of ‘uncivil disobedience’ or ‘resistance’ (see, e.g. Brennan, 2018; Delmas, 2018). It is, then, difficult to determine if civil disobedience will remain central to philosophical debates and activist practice, or whether we are witnessing the beginnings of its decline. William E. Scheuerman’s critical analysis of civil disobedience, published as part of Polity’s influential Key Concepts series, therefore arrives at an auspicious moment. It offers an excellent, systematic survey of the philosophical literature on civil disobedience, as well as a nuanced appraisal of the profound impact of Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr on its theory and practice. Scheuerman maps the terrain through analysing the contrasting approaches to civil disobedience adopted by religious–spiritual (chapter 1), liberal (chapter 2), democratic (chapter 3) and anarchist (chapter 4) approaches. Although much of his discussion focuses on landmark contributions from previous eras, he also devotes considerable attention to recent developments. There is, for instance, a sharp overview of the state of current scholarship (chapter 7), informed by an impressive analysis of the transformative impacts of digitisation (chapter 6) and post-nationalisation (chapter 5) on the theory and practice of civil disobedience. The upshot is that the book functions as a superb primer on civil disobedience, which offers a one-stop resource for scholars, students and activists seeking an accessible guide to the literature. It would, though, be wrong to downplay the extent to which it constitutes an original and important contribution in its own right. If there is uncertainty about whether civil disobedience will continue to enjoy the Ó 2019 Springer Nature Limited. 1470-8914 Contemporary Political Theory www.palgrave.com/journals
Review
prominence it has in the past, then Scheuerman comes down firmly on the side of those who believe that it should. This claim is conditional upon rediscovering the lost treasure of civil disobedience, which he contends is something that its presentday champions and critics fail to do. That treasure is closely associated with the ideal of the rule of law. Although it is a form of political protest that entails unlawful conduct, Scheuerman insists that ‘religious, liberal and democratic accoun
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