"Democracy is like the experience of life itself--always changing, infinite in its variety, sometimes turbulent and all the more valuable for having been tested for adversity(Rooney 383)," said President Jimmy Carter in his speech to the Parliament of India on June 2, 1978. "Sometimes turbulent..." Perhaps President Carter is referring to civil disobedience, which according to Henry David Thoreau is a peaceful means of protest by the people to encourage change within the current government without resorting to bloodshed. The ideals of civil disobedience as defined by Henry David Thoreau are compatible with a democratic government. Civil disobedience provides the people with a peaceful means of bringing about change in their society, something the representatives they elect within their democracy do not always do. Civil disobedience has proven itself time and again, over and over throughout the ages; Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King Jr.`s valiant fight for civil...