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While liberal-democratic states like America, Britain and Australia claim to value freedom of expression and the right to dissent, they have always actually criminalized dissent. The book highlights the mix of fear and delusion in play when states privilege security to protect an imagined 'political order' from difference and disagreement.
List of contents
Introduction 1. Thinking about Dissent 2. Thinking Relationally: Bringing the Political Back In 3. The Many Faces of Dissent 4. ‘Protecting Democracies from Themselves’: How Liberal Democracies Criminalise the Political 5. Law Against Liberty: Making Sense of the Criminalization of Dissent 6. Liberalism, Law and the Problem of Legitimacy 7. The Political Legitimacy of the Liberal-Democratic State 8. The Legitimacy of Political Violence 9. Why Dissent Is Good for Us
About the author
Rob Watts is currently a professor of Social Policy at RMIT University where he teaches politics, criminology, policy studies and applied human rights. He was a founding member of the Greens Party in Victoria, and established the Australian Center for Human Rights Education at RMIT in 2008. His recent books include States of Violence and the Civilising Process (2016), Public Universities, Managerialism and the Value of the University (2017) and The Precarious Generation: A Political Economy of Young People (2018, co-authored).
Summary
While liberal-democratic states like America, Britain and Australia claim to value freedom of expression and the right to dissent, they have always actually criminalized dissent. The book highlights the mix of fear and delusion in play when states privilege security to protect an imagined ‘political order’ from difference and disagreement.
