We provide the first systematic research into the origins of subjective freedom of speech in Germany. Relying on the GLES 2021 Cross-Section Pre-Election Survey, which includes a newly designed survey item on subjective freedom of speech, we evaluate a whole range of plausible candidate hypotheses. First, we contribute to cumulative research by testing the explanatory factors in Gibson (1993)—citizens’ social class, their political involvement and political preferences, and their personality dispositions—for the German case. Second, we move beyond the state of the art and test three new hypotheses that reflect more recent political developments and arguments in the free speech debate: the role of social media, increasing political and social polarization, and the rise of populism. Importantly, all hypothesis tests reported in this paper have been preregistered prior to data collection. Our results reveal that three explanatory factors are significantly, consistently, and substantively related to subjective free speech in Germany: political preferences, populist attitudes, and identification with the Alternative for Germany party.
Some 23% of respondents disagree and 40% even strongly disagree with the statement that “people like them” are no longer allowed to freely express their opinions. Yet at the same time, one in five persons agree with this statement (8% of whom agree strongly) and report a lack of a subjective freedom of speech. The remaining 17% are undecided in their evaluation of this key civil liberty.
That may be, but they’re not the only ones. Germany has pretty much made it illegal to criticize “Israel”, or even to wave a Palestinian flag. In many German states it’s also illegal to take Russia’s side in the Ukraine conflict. Not to mention that they always have communist organizations under surveillance by the Verfassungsschutz.
In fact it is much easier to express bigoted and xenophobic opinions, and right wingers do it on TV all the time. It’s not like AfD members are getting thrown in jail, on the contrary, they are regularly winning elections in some states. They are bigger than ever. So on the right it is mostly perception. For the left there is actually real suppression.
That may be, but they’re not the only ones. Germany has pretty much made it illegal to criticize “Israel”, or even to wave a Palestinian flag. In many German states it’s also illegal to take Russia’s side in the Ukraine conflict. Not to mention that they always have communist organizations under surveillance by the Verfassungsschutz.
In fact it is much easier to express bigoted and xenophobic opinions, and right wingers do it on TV all the time. It’s not like AfD members are getting thrown in jail, on the contrary, they are regularly winning elections in some states. They are bigger than ever. So on the right it is mostly perception. For the left there is actually real suppression.