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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.

Democracy. --- Freedom of speech. --- Self-government --- Political science --- Equality --- Representative government and representation --- Republics --- Free speech --- Freedom of speech --- Liberty of speech --- Speech, Freedom of --- Civil rights --- Freedom of expression --- Assembly, Right of --- Freedom of information --- Intellectual freedom --- Law and legislation --- citizens. --- civil society. --- democratic persuasion. --- democratic values. --- equal citizenship. --- equality. --- family values. --- free expression. --- free speech. --- freedom of expression. --- freedom of religion. --- freedom of speech. --- freedom. --- gender discrimination. --- hate groups. --- international law. --- liberal democracy. --- liberalism. --- non-profit status. --- public justification. --- public relevance. --- public values. --- publicly justifiable privacy. --- race discrimination. --- reflective revision. --- religious beliefs. --- religious freedom. --- state influence. --- state roles. --- state speech. --- state subsidy power. --- state transformation. --- state. --- value democracy. --- viewpoint neutrality.