96 Civil Disobedience Essay Topics & Examples

Crafting a civil disobedience thesis or writing about historical figures and social movements? Get some original topics and read some samples on government resistance gathered by our team.

📝 Tips on Writing Stellar Civil Disobedience Essay Examples

Civil disobedience has been a controversial topic since 1849 when the term first appeared in Thoreau’s essay.

Writing an essay on civil disobedience may be a challenging task because there are still many questions and unresolved issues around this concept. However, there are some useful tips that can help you to write excellent civil disobedience essays.

Here are some civil disobedience essay titles and topics we can suggest:

• Civil disobedience as a way to combat injustice
• Civil disobedience in the arguments of Martin Luther King
• Resistance movement and civil disobedience
• The question of nonviolence in civil disobedience
• How civil disobedience can shape society
• Civil disobedience as a form of passive resistance
• The meaning and significance of civil disobedience
• Gandhi and civil disobedience: A discussion

Once you have selected one of civil disobedience essay topics and titles, you can start working on your paper. Here are some key points you can use to write an excellent paper:

• Start with defining civil disobedience before writing your paper. Think of what this term means to you and research available sources to learn more about it.
• Study the topic you have selected thoroughly, even if you think that you know a lot about it. It is always a good idea to check out the latest news articles on civil disobedience along with scholarly sources. Remember that Wikipedia is not a reliable source of information.
• Do not hesitate to check out essay examples online. Civil disobedience essay examples can help you to evaluate the relevance of the issue you have selected for discussion and see how you can structure your paper. Avoid copying the works you will find online.
• Now you can start to develop an outline for your paper. Think of the main points you want to include and organize them within the essay. Do not forget to present a thesis statement at the end of the introductory paragraph. The number of body paragraphs will depend on the size of the paper. We would recommend including at least three body paragraphs.
• Clearly define the objectives of your essay or the message you want to convey in the paper.
• Do not forget to define civil disobedience and explain the meaning of this term. Providing examples is a good idea, too. You can also reflect on why individuals decide to disobey and what causes such behavior.
• Discuss the consequences and legal aspects associated with civil disobedience. The goal of your paper should be to help the reader understand the topic better and develop an opinion on it. Outline your perspective clearly.
• Remember to support your claims with evidence. Cite articles using appropriate citation style (MLA, APA, Harvard, or other). Ask your professor about the sources you can use for the essay.
• Remember to provide a civil disobedience essay summary or a simple concluding paragraph at the end of your paper. In this paragraph, you should state the main ideas and findings of your essay and research. You should not include in-text citations in this section.
• Include recommendations in a separate body paragraph or as a part of the concluding section, if applicable. Make sure that the recommendations are relevant to the topic you have selected and can potentially solve the issue.

Remember that you can check out some samples on our website. They are free and have the best ideas for your essay.

🏆 Best Civil Disobedience Essay Examples & Topics

1. Self-Reliance Versus Civil Disobedience
   Thoreau says that he is a monarch of the survey, and it is his right to explore nature that no one can dispute.
2. Civil Disobedience: Advantages and Disadvantages
   Even without being told, people have to be obedient to the rules, laws and guidelines that have been set out by social institutions to ensure that there is peace and harmony in the society.
3. Civil Disobedience and Pride in “Antigone” by Sophocles
   The play effectively depicts the theme of civil disobedience through the personality of Antigone, who is willing to break the rules to satisfy her morals standards and conscience. Therefore, the author uses the characters of […]
4. Love, Law, and Civil Disobedience: Speech Analysis
   The main point that King made is the evidence that disobedience is the driver of the law, the value of freedom and the principles of nonviolence.
5. Political Obligation and Civil Disobedience
   The disparity between the issues of legal political obligation and moral obligation makes it hard for liberal political theorists to analyze the natural duty and the moral basis of any person’s submission to his or […]
6. Thoreau, Socrates, and Civil Disobedience
   The striking difference in these two essays is that Thoreau is more rebellious when it comes to the government and he feels that the government is wrong and it must be subjected to criticism to […]
7. Mahatma Gandhi’s Salt Walk and Civil Disobedience
   The act signified the end of salt laws and allowed Indians to harvest saltwater and produce salt locally. Mahatma protested unfair salt laws imposed by staging a peaceful walk from his hometown in Ahmedabad to […]
8. “Sit-Ins” in the US: The Civil Disobedience
   Civil disobedience is an opportunity to change the situation for better, at least in a challenging way. Moreover, to date, “Sit-Ins” are unlikely to bring many benefits, and people solve the problem of inequality in […]
9. The Essay “Civil Disobedience” by Henry David Thoreau
   He claims that the government’s power is based more on the influence that the majority possesses rather than on the desire to act legitimately and fairly, which makes it overall unreliable as a source of […]
10. Why Civil Disobedience Is Morally Justified
    Thus, civil disobedience becomes a morally justified act since it seeks to openly and non-violently address wrong and problematic phenomena in society.
11. Good Samaritan vs Civil Disobedience in Law
    Bill of Rights asserts that the authority of a government is derived from the consent of the governed, and whenever any form of government becomes destructive, it is the right and duty of the people […]
12. “Civil Disobedience” by Henry David Thoreau
    He is worried about so many problems that exist in the system of law and the justice of the state. At the beginning of his argument, Thoreau states that some laws in the country are […]
13. King ‘s “Letter From Birmingham Jail” and Thoreau’s “Civil Disobedience”
    Despite this fact, both King and Thoreau had a common goal to expose the unjust laws that govern a society of civil resistance to unjust laws It should be stressed that both King and Thoreau […]
14. Emerson’s The American Scholar, Thoreau’s Walden and Civil Disobedience, Douglass’ Narrative of the Life‎
    The importance of literature in our lives is impossible to exaggerate, partly because it represents the accumulated knowledge of the best minds of mankind through the whole course of human history, partly because it is […]
15. Gandhi, ‘Satyagraha’ and Thoreau’s ‘Civil Disobedience’
    Gandhi proposed some principles for the members of the Satyagraha and insisted that these principles must be followed to achieve the desired effect.
16. Civil Disobedience: Gandhi Non-Violent Campaigns
    It can be said that passive resistance or civil disobedience is the most harmonious way to fight for one right and achieve the goals.
17. Henry David Thoreau: On the Duty of Civil Disobedience
    It also goes against some of society and the state’s outlook and is opposed to statism and collectivism which is that of conforming to the community and national goals.
18. Violence and Bloodshed in “Civil Disobedience” by Henry Thoreau
    Overall, it is possible to argue that violence cannot be regarded as a legitimate way of civil disobedience because it implies that an individual rejects the idea of law and dialogue between a person and […]
19. Rights to Civil Disobedience
    If the rights to civil disobedience are to be guaranteed, the values that accompany it would be prescribed in the legal code of ethics.
20. Thoreau and his idea of civil disobedience
    The struggle for civil governance has been the most challenging aspect in several governments across the globe with the urge for better governance becoming a hotly contested subject internationally. However, the overriding reason is; should […]
21. Civil Disobedience And Nonviolence
    It is the gist of this very long quote that answers the question and leaves the necessary action to be taken by the oppressed.
22. Environmentalism and Civil Disobedience
    What the current society is enjoying today is considered to be because of the good care of the environment by the previous generations and the future generations are hence expected to either enjoy or suffer […]
23. Concept of Civil Disobedience
    In most cases, this kind of disobedience comes through organizing people to act in a nonviolent manner to force the government to heed to their demands.
24. Nonviolent Action Protests: Civil Disobedience
    Thus, ordinary protest is for the intetrst of the organizer and has no respect to the implications of the actions on the wider society.
25. An Analysis of Kirkpatrick Jennet’s Uncivil Disobedience: Studies in Violence and Democratic Politics
    In the case of John Brown and other militant abolitionists, the real picture is that they had failed to allow the responsible institutions to handle the matter of abolition within the limits of law and […]

📌 Good Civil Disobedience Topics for Research

1. Describing Civil Disobedience Through the Acts of Martin Luther King
2. A Description of Civil Disobedience as the Refusal to Obey Civil Laws
3. Civil Disobedience: Are We Morally Obliged to Obey Unjust Laws?
4. The Effects of Procedural Justice on Civil Disobedience
5. Civil Disobedience, Postmodernism, and Globalization
6. The Demonstration of Civil Disobedience in the Dialogue Between Socrates and Crito
7. Analyzing the Justifiability of Violent Civil Disobedience
8. The Civil Rights Movement: Civil Disobedience vs. Violence
9. “Civil Disobedience” by Henry David Thoreau: An Overview
10. Civil Disobedience: A Phenomenological Approach
11. To What Extent Civil Disobedience Is Justified in a Democracy
12. Civil Disobedience Outside of the Liberal Democratic Framework
13. A Comparison of Theories of Civil Disobedience of Gandhi and Fanon
14. The Factors to Consider When Justifying Civil Disobedience
15. Should Civil Disobedience Be Permitted in a Democracy
16. Civil Disobedience: Effective and Non-violent Government
17. The Use of Civil Disobedience to Protest Against the Destruction of Endangered Trees
18. Civil Disobedience as a Basic Human Right in “Antigone” Play by Sophocles
19. The Justification of the Civil Disobedience During the Vietnam War
20. From Resistance to Revolution: The Limits of Non-violence in Arendt’s “Civil Disobedience”

👍 Interesting Civil Disobedience Essay Topics

1. The Ineffectiveness of Civil Disobedience in a Non-democratic Government
2. Nelson Mandela: The Art of Civil Disobedience
3. The Ideologies of Henry David Thoreau in His Essay “Civil Disobedience”
4. The Underlying Meaning of Civil Disobedience
5. Exploring the Virtues of Civil Courage and Disobedience
6. Transcendentalism in Civil Disobedience
7. The Reasons Why Civil Disobedience and Uncivil Disobedience Are Effective Ways to Solve Problems
8. The Influence of Henry David Thoreau’s “Civil Disobedience” on Martin Luther King Junior
9. An Analysis of the Topic of Civil Disobedience and Racism in the United States of America
10. An Overview of the Civil Disobedience and Passive Resistance of Mohandas Gandhi
11. An Argumentation Against Civil Disobedience
12. A Look at the Justification of David Thoreau’s “Civil Disobedience” Act Against Paying Taxes
13. Thoreau on How to Use Civil Disobedience to Advance Justice
14. Promoting the Use of Civil Disobedience
15. The Significance and History of Civil Disobedience
16. Rawls and the Contract Theory of Civil Disobedience
17. Civil Disobedience: Freedom Fighters or Criminals?
18. The Advantages and Disadvantages of Civil and Uncivil Disobedience
19. A Christian Philosophy on Civil Disobedience
20. Ecoterrorism and Eco Sabotage vs. Civil Disobedience
21. The Role and Contribution of Slavery on the Civil Disobedience in the US

❓ Civil Disobedience Questions

1. What Are the Two Main Claims of Civil Disobedience?
2. Is Thoreau’s Conception of Civil Disobedience Compatible With Democratic Government?
3. What Does Civil Disobedience Argue?
4. Why Is Civil Disobedience Not Morally Justified?
5. How Was Civil Disobedience Used in the Civil Rights Movement?
6. What Is Thoreau’s Opinion on Wealth and Consumption? Why Does He Say That the Rich Are Less Likely to Practice Civil Disobedience?
7. How Does Civil Disobedience Help a Social Movement?
8. Was the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre a Failure of Civil Disobedience?
9. How Does Civil Disobedience Work?
10. What Is the Tone of Thoreau’s “Civil Disobedience”?
11. How Does Stoicism Support Civil Disobedience?
12. What Were the Limitations of Civil Disobedience?
13. Which Type of Action Is More Effective, Taking Small Steps in Improving Your Livelihood or Taking Part in Climate Marches?
14. How Does Disobedience Promote Social Progress?
15. What Can Political Theory Tell Us About the Relationship Between Democracy and Protest?
16. Is Every Unjust Law an Appropriate Target for Civil Disobedience?
17. What Question Is at the Heart of Civil Disobedience?
18. Is Civil Disobedience Ever Justified?
19. How Effective Is Civil Disobedience?
20. Why Should We Obey the Law?
21. What Were the Limitations of Civil Disobedience?
22. Is Civil Disobedience a Moral Responsibility of a Citizen?
23. How Does Civil Disobedience Affect Society?
24. What Would Happen Without Civil Disobedience?
25. When Should Civil Disobedience Be Used?
26. Why Is There a Need for Civil Disobedience?
27. Is Disobedience Necessary for a Well Functioning Society?
28. Does Civil Disobedience Have to Be Peaceful?
29. Is Civil Disobedience a Crime?
30. Can Civil Disobedience Lead to Violence?