Why if at all is the Public Sphere a Useful Concept?
Why if at all is the Public Sphere a Useful Concept?

Summary/Abstract: The public sphere is in the work of Jürgen Habermas conceived as a neutral social space for critical debate among private persons who gather to discuss matters of common concern in a free, rational and in principle disinterested way. Praised as a normative ideal – especially by the advocates of participatory democracy – and criticised as a working model, the concept of the public sphere has triggered many controversies. The first part of this paper examines the usefulness of the concept by accenting the procedural value of its central category – the rational-critical debate. Assuming that the rational public debate is possible and assessing it as highly enriching for democracy, the second part questions the potential of the media to provide a forum for it. Although Habermas himself saw the media as contributing to the decay of the rational-critical discourse and causing the decline of the public sphere, numerous revisions of the concept, quite the contrary, have recognized the capacity of the media to initiate public discussion and give it a constructive spin. Hopes are high regarding the public service broadcasting and its principle of universal access. The Internet offers a range of still unexplored possibilities.

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