The philosopher Alexander Meiklejohn ranks among the most renowned First Amendment theorists. In Free Speech and Its Relation to Self-Government, published in 1948, he lays out four propositions: The First Amendment is intended to facilitate political discourse; its principal concern is the rights of listeners rather than those of speakers; the government has an affirmative obligation to improve the system of free expression; and effective political deliberation requires structure and rules. Together, these propositions add up to Meiklejohn’s self-government theory of the First Amendment. But he was not the first: All four propositions appear in a book published a year earlier by another philosopher, William Ernest Hocking, a member of the Commission on Freedom of the Press. This article critically examines the two men’s versions of self-government theory in the context of their backgrounds, their political philosophies, and their animating concerns about free speech.

哲学家亚历山大·米克勒约翰是最著名的第一修正案理论家之一。在言论自由与自治的关系1948 年出版，他提出了四个命题：第一修正案旨在促进政治话语；它主要关注的是听众的权利而不是演讲者的权利；政府有义务改善言论自由；有效的政治审议需要结构和规则。这些命题加在一起构成了梅克勒约翰的第一修正案自治理论。但他不是第一个：所有四个命题都出现在一年前由另一位哲学家威廉·欧内斯特·霍金（William Ernest Hocking）出版的一本书中，他是新闻自由委员会的成员。本文在他们的背景、政治哲学和对言论自由的积极关注的背景下，批判性地审查了这两个人的自治理论版本。