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Legal Weapons for the Weak? Democratizing the Force of Words in an Uncivil Society

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 December 2018

Orville Lee
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Abstract

First Amendment absolutists and proponents of speech regulation are locked in a normative stalemate over the best way to diminish racial “hate speech.” I argue that this stalemate can be overcome by considering a more expansive theory of the “force of words” and the risks the right of free speech entails for individuals. Drawing on a cultural theory of symbolic power, I discuss the merits and limitations of two recent texts which redefine hate speech as discriminatory conduct. As an alternative to this strategy, I develop an analytical framework for describing the social risks the right of free speech entails, and propose juridical and deliberative-democratic remedies that might redistribute and attenuate these risks. Cultural and legal theory can find common ground in the analysis of the undemocratic effects of symbolic power. Such common ground can be achieved if legal theorists consider the force of words as a problem for democracy and if cultural theorists consider the resources provided by democratic institutions and practices for the redistribution of the social risks of speech.

Type
Research Article
Information
Law & Social Inquiry , Volume 26 , Issue 4 , Autumn 2001 , pp. 847 - 890
Copyright
Copyright © American Bar Foundation, 2001 

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