A sociological perspective on civil disobedience via taxation: The case of Turkey

Abstract

Since the establishment of states, the power of taxation is one of the main elements of sovereignty and it has been applied frequently by the rulers and governments. One can see that individuals have shown mass reactions to unfair decisions of governors, especially to unfair and heavy taxes many times in the history. In sociological and legal doctrine, these reactions are classified into two groups such as passive and active resistance and passive resistances can be considered as mainly civil disobedience movements. Civil disobedience stands at the crossroads of the law and sociology due to its consequences. Therefore, in this study, the history of civil disobedience will be analysed through the perspectives of law and sociology. Considering this process, the study will focus on tax-based examples of civil disobedience beginning from the 2000s in Turkey. © 2016 Peter Lang GmbH. All rights reserved.