The Importance of Free Speech in Restoring Democracy
The article is here; the Introduction:
In response to our democratic crisis—polarization, contested elections, political violence—philanthropists, activists, and civic leaders have set about trying to find ways to restore democracy and a vibrant civic culture. Foundations have launched ambitious new programs. Individual philanthropists have convened collaboratives—the Democracy Alliance, the Democracy Funders Network, New Pluralists—aimed to pool resources and insights to shore up the polity. A cottage industry of new organizations has grown over the last seven years to work on voting rights, voter access, election laws and systems, civic participation, and more. These valiant efforts have collectively helped tamp down political unrest, fend off demands to reject the 2020 election result, and defend vulnerable democratic systems at the state level across the country. Many of these efforts are geared not just toward fortifying American democracy in its current form, but also to reinventing it to better meet the needs of a country buffeted by technological, demographic, and social change.
One bulwark of a healthy democracy that these efforts have not sufficiently prioritized, however, is free speech. This is doubly surprising. First, because alongside voting rights and systems, good governance, and civic participation, free speech and open discourse have always formed part of the backbone of a healthy democracy. And second, because free speech and open expression are so clearly under threat today. Controversies over free speech—what can and cannot be said, taught, studied, and read—are fueling grievances that are deepening polarization and distrust in our political system. Yet the battle to uphold free speech has not been incorporated into the broader movement for democracy. It must be.
In this essay, I first describe the loss of faith in free speech on the left and the right and the reasons for it. I then detail the relationship between free speech and democracy, and how it has come under pressure from growing pluralism, polarization, and digitization. I follow by outlining how a flagging commitment to free speech in education, in terms of protest and assembly rights and in relation to the role of the free press, are collectively weakening American democracy. I conclude with a series of recommendations that can help shore up the place of free speech as a democratic cornerstone now and for generations to come.
