Reflections on civil disobedience: analysis on its conceptual formation for the legitimate exercise of the right of contest

The text addresses the problematic construction of the concept of civil disobedience, aiming to demonstrate it as a product of contesting actions, which was optimized from the lexicon derived from reflections made by theorists who analyzed its legitimacy. Should we have a unified concept of civil disobedience? Through a hypothetical deductive reasoning and approach, the text begins its analysis with John Locke's foundations on autonomy and contestation of political power, which serve as a theoretical basis for three actions linked to the idea of civil disobedience, commonly used as a model. Whether by the individual contesting action of Henry Thoreau, that of collective movements such as those of Mahatma Gandhi in India, or of Martin Luther King Jr. In the USA. Finally, it appears that the parameter coming from the theorists' reflections on these actions, as well as their underlying concepts, reinforces the importance of their understanding for the improvement of democratic regimes, without necessarily imposing a narrow concept.