Free Speech and Elections

This chapter examines how elections give rise to special problems relating to speech. In the choice of government and governors, speech needs to be lively and robust, which is not to say of course that speech should be unconstrained. Indeed, the paradox of elections is that they need both freedom and restraint if electoral purposes are to be served. In the context between candidates and parties, who else should be permitted to speak, and what if anything should they be prohibited from saying? In the context of elections, however, what has become a bigger concern in modern liberal democracies is not who may speak and what can they say, but what means can they use, what opportunities and restrictions are to apply to the means used, and how much can be spent in projecting electoral messages? These latter questions do not address the content of speech so much as its volume, but they are urgent questions in light of the exponential increase in the sums spent by candidates, parties, and others in seeking to influence electoral outcomes.