On the Degeneration of the Public Sphere

Abstract

The paper interprets C. Wright Mills's distinction between ‘private troubles' and ‘public issues' as indicating both a conceptual and an institutional separation between civil society and the public sphere. It goes on to argue that Habermas's social theory is founded upon the view that ‘distorted communication’ should be analysed within an already institutionalized public space within civil society. Arguments that claim that the public sphere is degenerate on historical or theoretical grounds are rejected. The paper differentiates between pre-institutional and institutional levels of the public sphere and concludes by illustrating this conceptual distinction, first, through a brief discussion of ‘new social movements' and Alain Touraine's actionist sociology, and secondly, through a discussion of natural justice and public inquiries.