Exiles as Principled Disobedients

Abstract

This chapter begins an enquiry into political methods, focusing on disruptive protest and principled disobedience, which has featured in the different case studies examined in the book. Standardly, principled disobedience is justified because of its role in enhancing democratic deliberation and justice in the society it disrupts. Exile protest targets wrongdoing in another society that might have no connection to the place in which the protest takes place. I argue that, even though the paradigm case of exile disobedience does not fit the standard case, it can still perform these ameliorative functions in receiving communities and still be justified. And, even when it does not, I argue that exiles’ communities of residence have a duty to accommodate exile protest. Exile politics may also perform a corrective function in exiles’ communities of residence, which also present constraints on how exile politics ought to be carried out.