The problem of civil disobedience and its justification has received a great deal of attention in the past decade, and it seems safe to say that a consensus of sorts has been reached with respect to the basic questions of (i) whether such dissent can be morally justified in a legitimate constitutional democracy; and, if it can be justified, (ii) roughly what the conditions are under which this is the case. The received view among liberal political theorists, as I understand it, is that civil disobedience can be morally justified, under certain conditions, even in a more or less just democratic society. What's more, there is a remarkable degree of agreement among contemporary thinkers as to roughly what the conditions are under which civil disobedience is justified.
","abstract_html":"<p>The problem of civil disobedience and its justification has received a great deal of attention in the past decade, and it seems safe to say that a consensus of sorts has been reached with respect to the basic questions of (i) whether such dissent can be morally justified in a legitimate constitutional democracy; and, if it can be justified, (ii) roughly what the conditions are under which this is the case. The received view among liberal political theorists, as I understand it, is that civil disobedience can be morally justified, under certain conditions, even in a more or less just democratic society. What's more, there is a remarkable degree of agreement among contemporary thinkers as to roughly what the conditions are under which civil disobedience is justified.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Farrell, Daniel Michael"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)","degree_level":"Thesis","degree_discipline":null,"degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Joel Feinberg"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":1974,"date_issued":"1974-01-01T08:00:00Z","date_published":"1974-01-01T08:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T04:11:28Z","subjects":["civil disobedience","moral justification","constitutional democracy","liberal theory","dissent","political legitimacy","Social and Behavioral Sciences"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://digitalcommons.rockefeller.edu/student_theses_and_dissertations/495","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Joel Feinberg"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Farrell, Daniel Michael"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["civil disobedience","moral justification","constitutional democracy","liberal theory","dissent","political legitimacy","Social and Behavioral Sciences"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://digitalcommons.rockefeller.edu/student_theses_and_dissertations/495"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["The problem of civil disobedience and its justification has received a great deal of attention in the past decade, and it seems safe to say that a consensus of sorts has been reached with respect to the basic questions of (i) whether such dissent can be morally justified in a legitimate constitutional democracy; and, if it can be justified, (ii) roughly what the conditions are under which this is the case. The received view among liberal political theorists, as I understand it, is that civil disobedience can be morally justified, under certain conditions, even in a more or less just democratic society. What's more, there is a remarkable degree of agreement among contemporary thinkers as to roughly what the conditions are under which civil disobedience is justified.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Paying the Penalty: The Role of Punishment in Theories of Justified Civil Disobedience"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Joel Feinberg"],"dc:creator":["Farrell, Daniel Michael"],"dc:description.abstract":["The problem of civil disobedience and its justification has received a great deal of attention in the past decade, and it seems safe to say that a consensus of sorts has been reached with respect to the basic questions of (i) whether such dissent can be morally justified in a legitimate constitutional democracy; and, if it can be justified, (ii) roughly what the conditions are under which this is the case. The received view among liberal political theorists, as I understand it, is that civil disobedience can be morally justified, under certain conditions, even in a more or less just democratic society. What's more, there is a remarkable degree of agreement among contemporary thinkers as to roughly what the conditions are under which civil disobedience is justified.
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