Critiques of the

Idea of the Public Sphere

Ø Rationality questioned:

s Empirically

To what extent was the early bourgeois public sphere rational?

s Normatively

To what extent is such rationality possible?

s Indicators of citizenship and civic participation (Schudson):

- Internal resources (mainly, literacy)

- External (press, political parties, electoral procedures)

s Schudson on the history of the public sphere:

- Good old days not so good.

- Bad new days not so bad.

Ø Pleasure vs. rationality

Q: Can pleasure and rationality be separated?

Q: Is pleasure necessarily bad, numbing?

Ø Lack of universality (the common good)

s Class critiques

- Negt & Kluge (1960s)

“The proletarian public sphere”

s Feminist critiques (1980s)

- Landes

- Fraser

Neglect of the role of women in politics