The Fairplay of Civil Disobedience: An Analysis of Violence and Punishment for a Subversively Constructive Political Action

Among several ways of encountering undesirable outputs of modern state apparatuses, civil disobedience appears as an initially subversive, yet subsequently constructive form of political action. The wisdom and significance of the term rely particularly on its contribution to the dynamic repertoires of concepts such as state authority and legitimacy, political obligation, democratic participation, collective action and civil society. However, various dilemmas in its practice pose a number of questions worth being addressed in a contemporary age of political philosophy. This book focuses on violence and punishment as most frequently expressed problems in cases of civil disobedience. In this respect, the theory of fair play provides a fertile field to rejuvenate the recurrent patterns of approaching these two central issues in an intellectually provocative way.