Deliberative democracy and freedom of expression

Abstract

The possibility of democratic governance to constitute the most satisfactory rationale of free expression is raised and discussed in this article. Along these lines deliberative democracy is identified as the most promising candidate given the uncompromising preponderance it ascribes to free speech. This model requires that the voices of all those participating in the deliberative procedures are heard and taken into account. Next, emphasis is put on the elaboration of possible speech limitations (lies, threats, certain state secrets, restrictions concerning place and time) being in concert with the basic tenets of deliberative democracy. In the final section it is argued that the only category of speech that enjoys sufficient protection within this model is political speech, whereas non political speech has either to clumsily disguise itself as political speech or to be placed under the umbrella of a more comprehensive and less selective free speech rationale.