Jürgen Habermas The Public Sphere

8/13/2019 Jrgen Habermas The Public Sphere

1/5

Jrgen Habermas: "The Public Sphere" (1964)Author(s): Peter Hohendahl and Patricia RussianSource: New German Critique, No. 3 (Autumn, 1974), pp. 45-48Published by: New German CritiqueStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/487736.

Accessed: 26/11/2013 14:34

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at.http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of

content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

New German CritiqueandDuke University Pressare collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and

extend access toNew German Critique.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 14.139.246.27 on Tue, 26 Nov 2013 14:34:01 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=ngchttp://www.jstor.org/stable/487736?origin=JSTOR-pdfhttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/stable/487736?origin=JSTOR-pdfhttp://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=ngc


2/5

Jilrgen abermas:ThePublicSphere 1964)byPeterHohendahl

The following hort discussionof the concept of the public sphere(Oeffentlichkeit)ppeared n 1964 as an article n the Fischer-Lexikon.t isbasedon the bookStrukturwandeler OeffentlichkeitStructural ransfor-mationof the Public Sphere),first ublished n 1962 and reprinted ourtimes ince. With thiswork, heyoungphilosophernd social theoretician,Jiirgen abermas, stablished isreputation.Originally rittens a Habili-tationsschriftor small circleofscholars, trukturwandeler Oeffentlich-keitsoon became a standardworkwhichwas to help shape the politicalconsciousnessftheemerging ewLeft nthe1960s.The bookremained nthe centerof discussion ven after1968whenmany eftisttudents rokewiththe Frankfurtchool,withwhichHabermas was also identified. t issignificanthatHabermasdedicated hisfirst reatworknot toHorkheimeror Adornobutto theMarburgpolitical cientist nd legalexpertWolfgangAbendroth, figureargely nknownn theUnitedStates. Abendroth adparticipatedmuchmore ntensivelyn thepoliticaldebates of the FederalRepublic FRG) thaneitherHorkheimerr Adorno.Habermas, therefore,had morethanpersonal easons or hisdedication;hisstudy f thepublicspherewould not conform asilyto the methodological hinking f theFrankfurtchool.LikeAbendroth, abermas aimed much moredirectlytthe transformationfpolitical nd socialconditions,onditionswhichwereseenbybothmenas approaching stateofcrisis.The political imilarityfHabermas' book to Dialectic of the Enlightenment y Horkheimer ndAdorno is unmistakable, pecificallyn those portionswhich deal withculturalphenomenaculture ndustry). owever, t is equallyimportantoemphasize he differencen themethodof investigation. abermasis notcontentwithmerespeculation.He buttresses is socio-political rgumen-tation with extensive eferences o othersources. Cultural history,egalhistory, assmedia theory, mpirical ocial science: Habermasdrawsupona variety f disciplinesn comingto gripswiththe phenomenonof thepublicsphere.The numerous eferencesnthefootnotesointonce again tothe tradition fGermanscholarship.Habermas could in factno longer ealizehis ntentions ithin heframe-workof a singlediscipline.His studydemonstrateshatthepublic sphereconstitutesne of thecategories entral o an understandingf the modernperiod, i.e. bourgeois ocietyfrom1700 to 1974. With the aid of this

This content downloaded from 14.139.246.27 on Tue, 26 Nov 2013 14:34:01 PMAll use subject toJSTOR Terms and Conditions
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp


3/5

46 NEW GERMANCRITIQUE

category,ocialas well as political nd cultural hanges an be explained--changeswhich he older culturalpessimism erceived nly n theiroutwardmanifestationss symptomsfdecline.As is commonly nown, heoppo-sition fpublicand private erives rom ntiquity.At that timetheprivatesphereencompassed he home, the family nd its activities;the publicspherein the ancientcitystate, on the otherhand, included commonpolitical ctivity,heconcern orpublicwelfare. et thisdistinctions it isstill raditionally aintained ycontinentalheoriesfconstitutionalawnolongercorrespondso the relationshipf society nd state n the modernperiod.AmongHabermas'major contributionss his abilityto delineateconceptual nconsistenciesnd then ogically o historicizehe category fthepublic sphere.What wecustomarilyharacterizes publicopinion, sthepublicbody or thepublicsphere merged or hefirst ime n earlycapitalism s a specific pherebetween tate and society.This bourgeoispublic spherearose genetically romthe representativeublic sphereofmedievalfeudalism. ts structure nd functionwereoriginally eterminedby a particular onstellationn the confrontationetween the absolutiststate and an economic bourgeois individualism n the process ofemancipating tself.This public spherehas evolvedinto an institutionbetween he private phereand the state and is thereforen no wayanintegral artof statepower and of itspublic sphere).On thecontrary,sHabermasdemonstrates,ts functionwas to oversee heabsolutisttate.Inorder o secure hisposition, ational egal principleswere nstituted hichwerebindingforall. One of the primary oals of thisbourgeoispublicspherewas tomakepolitical nd administrativeecisions ransparent.helegitimacyfthis iberalmodel remainedunquestionedn theAnglo-Saxoncountries,havingbeen established ffectivelyt an earlierperiod. As aresult, n these societies both the historicalconditions eading to theemergence f the liberal model and itsconnections o capitalistforms fproduction ave becomeobscured.Havinghimself ived and worked n acountry ith weakerpublictradition,Habermas s able to perceivemoreclearly hehistoricityf thepublicsphere. n short,writingt theendof theFRG's restorationhase, Habermas was forced o reconstructistoricallythefunctions f a liberalpublic sphere,precisely ecause in Germany hepublicspherehad beenrealizedbelatedlynd then nly o a limited egree.His criticism f late bourgeoisforms f the public sphere simultaneouslyprovided heNewLeftwith n instrumentoconfronthe crisisn theFRG,alreadyvisible n thehorizonn theearly1960s.The extent owhich t canbe shown hat the iberalmodel of thepublic sphere, till spoused nWestGermany ysociologistsuch as RalfDahrendorf,s linked o specific ocial



4/5

INTRODUCTION TO HABERMAS 47

and economicconditions,s the extent o which t can also be shown thatthe iberalconcept f thepublic sphere s no longerpolitically easible.Thisinstitution as lost tssignificances an instrumentfpoliticaldiscussion--not because the critical udgmentof the citizen is less important,butbecausethe iberalmodel tselfsconstantlyndermined ythe ntertwiningof state and society, he diffusionfthe state and social sectors.Accordingto Habermas, this s thekeyaspectof the contemporaryituation.If one acceptsHabermas' analysisof the end of the bourgeois publicsphere n a late capitalist ociety, hereremains he questionofwhatwillappear in itsplace. Habermas,at least,seems to be of theopinionthat tsfunction-i.e. the citizens' ationaldiscussion fproblems fpublicwelfarein an atmosphere ree of restrictions-isndispensible. et he declines tooffer draft f a future, ost-bourgeoisublic sphere.At mosthe suggestsvery oughoutline f thispost-bourgeoisublic sphere n thesectionof thebook whichdescribesMarx's solution to the bourgeois mpasse (sectionfourteen f Habermas). Here the new public sphere s portrayedn thefollowingerms: The public sphereno longermediates etween society fprivate propertyowners and the state. Instead, by systematicallyconstructing state which merges into the society as a whole, anautonomouspublic body,as private ndividuals, ssures tself sphereoffreedom, ree imeand freedom f movement 2nd edition,1965,p. 143).The incursion fprivate nterestsntopublicopinion thesocial question),socharacteristicf the ate bourgeois ublicsphere, an onlybe eliminatedwhen the cause--the unequal distribution f propertyproduced bycapitalism--is emoved.There remains henthequestion f identifyinghestrategies ecessarywithin late capitalist ociety o preserve, nder thepresent onditions,heprinciple fthepublicsphere,but not itsbourgeoisform.This isthepointofdeparture orOskarNegt,a student fHabermas,and AlexanderKlugeseveralyears ater n Oeffentlichkeitnd Erfahrung:Zur Organisationsanalyseon bi*rgerlichernd proletarischerOeffent-lichkeitThe Public Sphere nd Experience:An Organizational nalysis fthe Bourgeoisand ProletarianPublic Spheres,1972). As is known,thebourgeoisie ad once maintained hat twould make theinstitutionf thepublic sphereaccessibleto everyone. his claim has never been realized.Instead, nthe aterphasesthegoal itself asoften eenmodified opreventthe incursion f the masses.Yet in opposition o thistrend,as Negt andKluge demonstrate, proletarian ublic spheredifferentn structure asbeguntoappear,a publicspherewhichwill ssertts claimsto leadershipnthefuture.



5/5

48 NEW GERMANCRITIQUE

Habermas, as mentioned above, alludes at best cautiously to such aneventuality.This mightbe partiallyattributable to his skepticismthat underthe conditions of state-organized capitalism the proletariat has the samechance as the bourgeoisie three hundred years before. If one assumes withHabermas in Kultur und Kritik Culture and Critique, 1973, p. 76) that thepossibility of a politically organizable class struggle is no longerimmediatelyrealizable and that the missionof theproletariat was thereforebound to the stage of high capitalism, then one cannot indeed hope for arenaissance of the public sphere under the aegis of theproletariat. No groupin contemporary societycould then be cited as the catalyst of progressiveimpulses. Therefore the way in which Negt and Kluge tentatively onfronttheform ofthe bourgeois public spherewiththe model of a proletarian oneindicates among other things the way in which the Left has advancedbeyond the position of Habermas.Nevertheless Habermas' study has not become superfluous. Theprofoundlystimulting nfluence of this work is just becoming apparent inrelated disciplines. Media research, sociology, but also humanisticdisciplinessuch as art histbry nd literaryhistory, we a decisive impetus toHabermas. The concept of the literarypublic sphere, which Habermas wasthe first o delineate as a significant spect of the public sphere, has provenitselfexceedingly fruitful for sociological investigationsof literature andcriticism. With the aid of thiscategory, one can comprehend the historicalas well as the contemporaryvalue of literature and its function within thetotal social framework.For the transitionfrom a method of literarycriticismbased on internal exegesis,which despite many misgivings tillprevailsherein the United States, to a method rooted in social history nd sociology, wewill have to turn to Habermas.Translated yPatriciaRussian


Date post:	04-Jun-2018
Category:	Documents
Upload:	ranjeet-sarpal
View:	226 times
Download:	0 times

Jürgen Habermas The Public Sphere

Documents