The Self-Government Rationale of Free Speech

Abstract

Among the purposes and values of free speech are the truth value, the self-fulfillment value, the safety-valve value, and the democratic self-governance value. This latter value is often associated with the writings of Alexander Meiklejohn, who argues that self-government depends for its survival on a free and robust democratic dialogue. Meiklejohn took a Madisonian view of the First Amendment, seeing its protections as existing primarily to serve the democratic process.