When the State Speaks, What Should It Say?: How Democracies Can Protect Expression and Promote Equality - Paperback

by Corey Brettschneider (Author)

How should a liberal democracy respond to hate groups and others that oppose the ideal of free and equal citizenship? The democratic state faces the hard choice of either protecting the rights of hate groups and allowing their views to spread, or banning their views and violating citizens' rights to freedoms of expression, association, and religion. Avoiding the familiar yet problematic responses to these issues, political theorist Corey Brettschneider proposes a new approach called value democracy. The theory of value democracy argues that the state should protect the right to express illiberal beliefs, but the state should also engage in democratic persuasion when it speaks through its various expressive capacities: publicly criticizing, and giving reasons to reject, hate-based or other discriminatory viewpoints.

Distinguishing between two kinds of state action--expressive and coercive--Brettschneider contends that public criticism of viewpoints advocating discrimination based on race, gender, or sexual orientation should be pursued through the state's expressive capacities as speaker, educator, and spender. When the state uses its expressive capacities to promote the values of free and equal citizenship, it engages in democratic persuasion. By using democratic persuasion, the state can both respect rights and counter hateful or discriminatory viewpoints. Brettschneider extends this analysis from freedom of expression to the freedoms of religion and association, and he shows that value democracy can uphold the protection of these freedoms while promoting equality for all citizens.

Back Jacket

"A bold answer to the problem of the liberal state which allows illiberal views to flourish without coercion, this book shows that core liberal ideals can be expressed by the state in words, funding, and schooling. Corey Brettschneider consolidates and extends his theory of value democracy, offering an alternative to neutrality and perfectionism alike."--Melissa Lane, Princeton University

"In this lucid and compelling book, Brettschneider takes on some of the most vexing issues in contemporary liberal polities, and offers a theory of value democracy as a touchstone for addressing those issues. His argument is one with which everyone will have to engage. A pleasure to read, this is political theory at its best."--Austin Sarat, Amherst College

"This terrific book examines the place of liberal democratic values in private life and forwards a novel and controversial argument: the liberal democratic state justifiably engages in noncoercive efforts at democratic persuasion so that the ostensibly private beliefs of individuals at odds with liberal democratic values might be transformed. This book will be widely discussed."--Rob Reich, Stanford University

Author Biography

Corey Brettschneider is associate professor of political science and associate professor, by courtesy, of philosophy at Brown University. He is the author of "Democratic Rights: The Substance of Self-Government" (Princeton).