Kan civil olydnad rättfärdigas? En normativ analys av Pussy Riot

Sammanfattning: This thesis examines the justification of civil disobedience. The main focus of the thesis is to highlight the normative arguments on both sides of the debate. The thesis consists of four parts. The first part defines what civil disobedience is and how it came to be. The second part of the thesis deals with the justification of civil disobedience from a democratic standpoint. The third part examines how different normative ethics teachings deal with the subject of civil disobedience. Finally the thesis uses the normative argument in an empirical case regarding the feminist punk-band Pussy riot and their political protest at the Russian Orthodox Christ the Savior Cathedral in Moscow. The thesis uses a normative method called “given that”-analysis which motive is to highlight normative arguments and break them down to understand the logic behind them. The conclusions of the thesis are that you can both justify and condemn the uses of civil disobedience from a democratic standpoint. The normative ethics teachings shows that depending on what level of analysis are used different questions to the justification of civil disobedience appear. The political protest performed by the Pussy riot is confirmed as being an act of civil disobedience.