The Use and Abuse of Political Violence

Abstract

The question addressed in this paper is whether it is permissible to use violence for political ends within the confines of a liberal democracy. After a brief defence of the liberal conception of violence, the standard liberal position on violence (which answers the above question unequivocally in the negative) is rejected as theoretically unsound. However the alternative radical view, which endorses the selective use of violence on democratic and/or humanitarian grounds, fails to come to terms with some important empirical facts about violence in democracies. The concluding section urges a more discriminating response to such violence than either the liberal or the radical view fosters.