In political philosophy, the right of revolution or right of rebellion is the right or duty of a people to "alter or abolish" a government that acts against their common interests or threatens the safety of the people without justifiable cause. Stated throughout history in one form or another, the belief in this right has been used to justify various revolutions, including the American Revolution, French Revolution, Texas Revolution, Syrian Revolution, Russian Revolution, and the Iranian Revolution.
History
Early examples
Ancient China To justify their overthrowing of the earlier Shang dynasty, the kings of the Zhou dynasty (1122–256 BCE) of China promulgated the concept known as the Mandate of Heaven, that Heaven would bless the authority of a just ruler, but would be displeased and withdraw its mandate from a despotic ruler.Perry, Elizabeth (2002). Challenging the Mandate of Heaven: Social Protest and State Power in China. Sharpe. The Mandate of Heaven would then transfer to those who would rule best. Chinese historians interpreted a successful revolt as evidence that the Mandate of Heaven had passed on. Throughout Chinese history, rebels who opposed the ruling dynasty made the claim that the Mandate of Heaven had passed, giving them the right to revolt. Ruling dynasties were often uncomfortable with this, and the writings of the Confucian philosopher Mencius (372–289 BCE) were often suppressed for declaring that the people have the right to overthrow a ruler that did not provide for their needs.
Ancient Rome
The populist leader Tiberius Gracchus tried to justify depriving power from tribune Marcus Octavius by arguing that a tribune "stands deprived by his own act of honours and immunities, by the neglect of the duty for which the honour was bestowed upon him". For Gracchus, he "who assails the power of the people is no longer a tribune at all".
He strengthened his argument by highlighting the precedent of the overthrow of Tarquin the Proud "when he acted wrongfully; and for the crime of one single man, the ancient government under which Rome was built was abolished forever."Plutarch (1952). Tiberius Gracchus (J. Dryden, trans.). In R. M. Hutchins (ed.), Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans (1st ed., Vol. 14, Great Books of the Western World, pp. 671–681). Chicago, Illinois: Encyclopædia Britannica. (Original work published 1927) As historian Edward Gibbon observes, after Tarquin's overthrow, "the ambitious Roman who should dare to assume their title or imitate [Tarquin's] tyranny was devoted to the infernal gods: each of his fellow-citizens was armed with the sword of justice; and the act of Brutus, however repugnant to gratitude or prudence, had been already sanctified by the judgement of his country."E. Gibbon (1952). The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. In R. M. Hutchins (ed.), Gibbon II (1st ed., Vol. 41, Great Books of the Western World, p. 92). Chicago, Illinois: Encyclopædia Britannica.
After the death of Augustus, the soldier Percennius fomented mutiny in the legions of Pannonia. Believing they had the right to violently rebel to get better treatment and greater appreciation from the state, he rhetorically asked the common soldiery why they submitted to the centurions while military life entailed such low pay and so many years in service. Many soldiers shared his feelings. According to the historian Tacitus, "The throng applauded from various motives, some pointing to the marks of the lash, others to their grey locks, and most of them to their threadbare garments and naked limbs."P. Cornelius Tacitus (1952). The Annals, Book I (A. J. Church, trans.). In R. M. Hutchins (Ed.), The Annals and Histories of Tacitus (1st ed., vol. 15, Great Books of the Western World, pp. 1–184). Chicago, Illinois: Encyclopædia Britannica. (Original work published 1927)
The Praetorian Subrius Flavus justified his right of revolution against Emperor Nero on the grounds that Nero's crimes meant he no longer deserved the love of the people: "I began to hate you when you became the murderer of your mother and your wife, a charioteer, an actor, and an incendiary."Tacitus, The Annals, Book XV, p. 174
In 285 C.E., Maximian suppressed a rebellion of Gallic peasants violently resisting exploitation by their masters. These fought for their natural rights against the miserable conditions they were placed under. Gibbon says that they "asserted the natural rights of men, but they asserted those rights with the most savage cruelty".E. Gibbon (1952). The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. In R. M. Hutchins (ed.), Gibbon I (1st ed., Vol. 40, Great Books of the Western World, p. 144). Chicago, Illinois: Encyclopædia Britannica.
Medieval Europe
One example of the emergence of a right of revolution can be traced back to Þorgnýr the Lawspeaker, who in 1018 had a dramatic confrontation with the King of Sweden. The lawspeaker claimed the King of Sweden was accountable to the people and would be overthrown by them if he continued with his unpopular war with Norway.
Another example were the semi-mythical Charters of Sobrarbe, allegedly issued in the Pyrenees in the 850s, which enshrined the Iberian legal principle that "laws come before kings."Ramos Loscertales, José María, «Los fueros de Sobrarbe», Cuadernos de Historia de España, 7 (1947). Specifically, the 6th charter of Sobrarbe (first mentioned in 1117) specified that "If He [the King] should hereafter tyrannise the kingdom against the fueros or liberties, the kingdom should be free to choose another king, even if he were a pagan," thereby enshrining the right of rebellion against the King. During the High Middle Ages, the Charters of Sobrarbe were used both in the kingdom of NavarreMartín Duque, Ángel Juan, «Hacia la edición crítica del Fuero de Tudela», Revista Jurídica de Navarra, núm. 4 (1987). and in the kingdom of Aragon to thwart royal authority, and in the medieval kingdom of Aragon to create the figure of the Justicia de Aragón, an office first mentioned in 1115, appointed by the Aragonese parliament, and with ample powers to veto any action of the King deemed to against the customs and laws of the kingdom; this provided a uniquely complete institutional and constitutional framework with which to disobey the King. The legal lemma "Obedezco pero no cumplo" [I obey, but do not comply] found in Castilian law, likewise stemming from this tradition, was used to justify disobeying the King's orders that were deemed to go against the law; this legal principle was used in everything from bypassing censorshipAdorno, R. (2020). "Obedezco pero no cumplo": Surviving Censorship in Early Modern Spain. Textual Cultures: Texts, Contexts, Interpretation 13(1), 29-74. https://muse.jhu.edu/article/763162. to justifying open rebellions, as e.g. was famously exploited by Hernán Cortés to justify his otherwise illegal invasion and conquest of Mexico against the explicit orders of the King of Castile and his officers in Cuba.Loudamy, Randall Ray. Cortés after the conquest of Mexico: constructing legacy in New Spain. Oklahoma State University, 2013.
Another example is Magna Carta, an English charter issued in 1215, which required the King to renounce certain rights and accept that his will could be bound by the law. It included a "security clause" that gave the right to a committee of barons to overrule the will of the King through force if needed. Magna Carta directly influenced the development of parliamentary democracy and many constitutional documents, such as the United States Constitution.Ralph V. Turner. Magna Carta. Pearson Education. (2003). p.1 The Golden Bull of 1222 was a golden bull, or edict, issued by King Andrew II of Hungary. The law established the rights of Hungary's noblemen, including the right to disobey the King when he acted contrary to law (). The Golden Bull is often compared to Magna Carta; the Bull was the first constitutional document of the nation of Hungary, while Magna Carta was the first constitutional charter of the nation of England.
Thomas Aquinas also writes about the right to resist tyranny in the Summa Theologica. He considers a law not to be a law at all, but an act of violence, if it contradicts either human or Divine good, overextends the power of the lawgiver, or hampers different parts of society unequally.T. Aquinas (1952). Summa Theologica, Part I–II, Question 96, Article 4 (Fathers of the English Dominican Province, trans.). In R. M. Hutchins (Ed.), The Summa Theologica of Saint Thomas Aquinas (1st ed., vol. 20, Great Books of the Western World, pp. 445–548). Chicago, Illinois: Encyclopædia Britannica. (Original work published 1947) For Aquinas, overthrowing a tyrant does not make a population seditious. Rather, the tyranny of tyrants means they commit "sedition", by which Aquinas means disturbance of those who work together lawfully for the good of the multitude:
Nicole Oresme, in his Livre de Politiques, categorically denied any right of resistance. John of Salisbury advocated direct revolutionary assassination of unethical tyrannical rulers in his Policraticus.
Early modern Europe
Theological notions of the right of revolution were elaborated in the early modern period. The Jesuits, especially Robert Bellarmine and Juan de Mariana, were widely known and often feared for advocating resistance to tyranny and often tyrannicide—one of the implications of the natural law focus of the School of Salamanca.
John Calvin believed something similar. In a commentary on the Book of Daniel, he observed that contemporary monarchs pretend to reign "by the grace of God", but the pretense was "a mere cheat" so that they could "reign without control". He believed that "Earthly princes depose themselves while they rise up against God", so "it behooves us to spit upon their heads than to obey them". When ordinary citizens are confronted with tyranny, he wrote, ordinary citizens have to suffer it. But magistrates have the duty to "curb the tyranny of kings", as had the Tribunes of the Plebs in ancient Rome, the Ephors in Sparta, and the Demarchs in ancient Athens. That Calvin could support a right of resistance in theory did not mean that he thought such resistance prudent in all circumstances. At least publicly, he disagreed with the Scottish Calvinist John Knox's call for revolution against the Catholic Queen Mary I Tudor of England.Dave Kopel, "The Calvinist Connection" , Liberty, October 2008, pp. 27–31
The Catholic Church shared Calvin's prudential concerns – the Pope condemned Guy Fawkes' Gunpowder Plot, and Regnans in Excelsis was widely considered to be a mistake. Instead, the safest course of action for the people was to endure tyranny for as long as it could be borne, rather than run the larger risks of armed revolution.
The right of revolution was expounded by the Monarchomachs in the context of the French Wars of Religion, and by Huguenots thinkers who legitimized tyrannicides.
In the last chapter of The Prince, Niccolò Machiavelli exhorts the Medici family to take up violent insurrection "to liberate Italy from the barbarians". He explains why contemporary circumstances justify the Medici's right of revolution:
Philosophical views John Locke