Abstract
The public sphere is readily dismissed as an unrealistic notion with no credible purchase on reality. Apart from the cynicism and, indeed, nihilism of such a dismissal, the public sphere is at the very least defensible as an ideal type, that is, a typification of certain essential features of a phenomenon existing to some extent at some time and in some place somewhere. Moreover, without an idea of a preferable condition, something better than that which currently prevails, there are no grounds to question and possibly change present conditions. Such an idea, then, provides a principle of judgement. In this case, it is no less than an official principle implicit in claims to democracy, the practical implementation of which may be called to account with impeccable legitimacy. This is not some unrealistically radical notion. The public sphere is supposed to be the arena of critical disputation, free and open debate of a reasonable kind about issues of interest shared by citizens. It is meant to be a space in which opinions are formed and articulated concerning public interests that should, therefore, be consequential for political process in a democracy. The public sphere is, to paraphrase one of the founders of neoliberal political economy, Walter Lippmann, a dogma of modern liberal democracy.1
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Notes
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© 2016 Jim McGuigan
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McGuigan, J. (2016). A Critical Measure of Public Culture. In: Neoliberal Culture. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137466464_11
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