Definition
The marketplace of ideas is a metaphor for the ideals of free expression and civic engagement in democratic societies. The metaphor applies the tenets of economic theory to speech and rests upon the assumption that when the public is allowed to freely debate important political issues, true ideas will emerge and propagate as opposed to falsities. The metaphor, while noble and idealistic, suffers from a number of notable flaws related to assumptions about the objective nature of truth, the rational and informed actions of the public, and the “free” nature of the market for ideas in most democracies. Because of these assumptions, the marketplace of ideas remains a simplistic, yet popular, metaphor for the possibility of truly free expression, rather than a realistic portrayal of public discourse.
Introduction
As one of the most frequently applied metaphors of free speech, the marketplace of ideas has overshadowed political and legal discussions of free expression for the past...
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Wolfgang, D. (2020). Marketplace of Ideas. In: Harris, P., Bitonti, A., Fleisher, C., Skorkjær Binderkrantz, A. (eds) The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Interest Groups, Lobbying and Public Affairs . Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-13895-0_93-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-13895-0_93-1
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