Deliberative politics and tipology of public sphere

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the morphology and development of the concept of public sphere in Habermas’ works, evincing the revisions made by the author concerning: a) the recognition of multiple publics and its implications for the critical assessment of prob­lems of common interest; b) the construction of a typology of public sphere and its theoret­ical consequences for articulating different plans of argumentative exchange and debates hap­pening in settings of everyday live, in more organized forums of the civil society associations and, finally, along mass media. Finally, certain shortcomings of Habermas’ two-track model of political power circulation is explored regarding the lack of permeability among different types of public sphere and some difficulties for institutionalizing public debate outcomes.