The concept of Rightful Resistance refers to a form of partially institutionalized popular contention against the state whereby aggrieved citizens seek to legitimize their causes by making use of state's own laws, policies or rhetoric in framing their protests. Rightful resistance is contrasted with other forms of popular protest where citizens challenge the legitimacy of rulers; the rightful resister accepts the legitimacy of laws, policies and core values of the state, but protests when they perceive that authorities have failed to deliver on their own promises, or have defied the laws or widely accepted values. Rightful resisters are characterized by the peaceful nature of their protests, which often make use of institutionalized channels of dissent. Unlike more conventional resisters who may employ covert or quiet means of sabotage against the state, rightful resisters are actively seek the attention of the elites, and their protests are public and open.

The concept was first explained by Kevin O'Brien in the 1996 article Rightful Resistance, which focused on its applications in rural China

People's Republic of China

China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...

, as well as in a variety of other political settings, including the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 and South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

. The concept was elaborated on in O'Brien and Li's Rightful Resistance in Rural China, and has been adopted by a number of other social change theorists to describe the methods by which citizens may gradually seek to advance their rights and interests.

China

The concept of rightful resistance devised by O'Brien was initially used to describe protest actions adopted in rural China, where citizens confront a range of grievances stemming from official corruption, environmental pollution, predatory taxes, and economic misappropriation, among others. As the "rights consciousness" of Chinese citizens grew in the era of Deng Xiaoping

Deng Xiaoping

Deng Xiaoping was a Chinese politician, statesman, and diplomat. As leader of the Communist Party of China, Deng was a reformer who led China towards a market economy...

 and onward, citizens began making use of petitioning

Petitioning (China)

Petitioning is the administrative system for hearing complaints and grievances from individuals in the People's Republic of China.-Origins:...

 channels, the legal system, and of central government directives to hold local-level authorities to account. To illustrate, O'Brien provides the example of a group of villagers in Henan

Henan

Henan , is a province of the People's Republic of China, located in the central part of the country. Its one-character abbreviation is "豫" , named after Yuzhou , a Han Dynasty state that included parts of Henan...

 province facing excessive taxes from local authorities. In response, the villages presented authorities with a copy of central government regulations which prescribed strict limits of taxes, and threatened that if the local authorities failed to drop the excessive taxes, they would take their complaints up the ladder.

Rightful resistance in China is manifest in a variety of other ways, include use of the petitioning system, village elections, and legal system to seek redress against grievances. Weiquan

Weiquan movement

The Weiquan movement is a non-centralized group of lawyers, legal experts and intellectuals in the People's Republic of China who seek to protect and defend the civil rights of the citizenry through litigation and legal activism...

 (rights defending) lawyers, who regularly defy authorities by defending individuals whose human or civil rights have been violated by the party-state, have been described as engaging in a form of rightful resistance. Weiquan lawyers typically frame their arguments by making appeals to China's constitution

Constitution of the People's Republic of China

The Constitution of the People's Republic of China is the highest law within the People's Republic of China. The current version was adopted by the 5th National People's Congress on December 4, 1982 with further revisions in 1988, 1993, 1999, and 2004. Three previous state constitutions—those of...

, arguing that abuses of human rights—sanctioned as they may be by the state—are in contravention of the country's laws.