Abstract:
This article attempts to clarify the relationship between the concepts of public sphere and deliberative democracy as they are represented in the political theory of Jürgen Habermas. The aim is to explain the role of the political public sphere in the definition and justification of the procedural model of deliberative politics. The article is divided into an introduction, two main parts (focusing accordingly on The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere and on Between Facts and Norms) and conclusion.
In dealing with The Structural Transformation the focus is on the early interest of Habermas in democratic institutions and practices, which is caused by his discontent with liberal model of public sphere. In this book Habermas is interested in the historical forms of public sphere and its institutions as it can be considered as the beginning or the historical precedent of the ideal of democratic politics. Bourgeois public sphere is represented as having normative potential, which can be used to criticize contemporary democratic ideas and practices. This potential is connected with the idea of discursive process of opinion and will-formation, which is guided by the principles of public sphere. Another important line in this part is the attempt to prove that The Structural Transformation contains ideas and problems that motivate later researches of Habermas. The idea of public use of reason and the faith in possibility for rational organisation of society are lasting thread, running through the various research projects of Habermas.
The second part of the article deals with relations between deliberative democracy and the public sphere, represented in Between Facts and Norms. Habermas constructs his procedural model of deliberative politics as a third way between two influential conceptions: classical liberalism and civic republicanism. He examines these traditions from critical perspective and the comparative analysis goes through many key concepts such as popular sovereignty and human rights. The elements of liberalism and republicanism that Habermas accepts are integrated into the scheme of basic rights and in the ideal deliberative procedure for decision-making. In general it can be said that Habermas needs the public sphere to solve the problem with the legitimacy of legal norms by linking it with the discursive nature of communication in the formal and informal public sphere. On the other hand, the public sphere is used as an argument for justification of the empirical plausibility of the normative model of deliberative democracy.
