Hate Speech and Political Legitimacy
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Description
Proposals to ban hate speech are sometimes met with the objection that the restrictions on free speech that they envisage will undermine the legitimacy of the political system that imposes them. I have defended the idea of such restrictions elsewhere, and in this chapter I consider whether this worry about legitimacy constitutes a serious objection. There are a number of arguments in the literature that link the protection of free expression to the flourishing of self-government in a democracy. Some say little more than that, though they say it sonorously and at great length. In a few of these arguments, however, the position is advanced beyond a general concern for the democratic process. It is sometimes said that a free and unrestricted public discourse is a sine qua non for political legitimacy in a democracy. Robert Post makes this argument. Some sharpen the point yet further, arguing that the political legitimacy of certain specific legal provisions and institutional arrangements may be imperiled by the enactment and enforcement of hate speech laws.
Source Publication
The Content and Context of Hate Speech: Rethinking Regulation and Responses
Source Editors/Authors
Michael Herz, Peter Molnar
Publication Date
2012
Recommended Citation
Waldron, Jeremy, "Hate Speech and Political Legitimacy" (2012). Faculty Chapters. 1572.
https://gretchen.law.nyu.edu/fac-chapt/1572
