The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere

The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere Glossary

Acclamation

Habermas’s term for agreeing with an opinion that has already been formed, rather than debating or forming an opinion of one’s own.

Bourgeoisie

The middle classes of a society, which composed the public sphere in the early 19th century

Categorical Imperative

Similar to the golden rule ("do unto others what you would have them do unto you"), this is Kant’s requirement that for an action to be moral it has to be universalizable

Civil Society

A society of citizens, referring to the private individuals and families who participate in a nation’s economy.

Conjugal Family

The household in the private realm of a society, especially ordered around the nuclear family.

Interventionism

A state policy of intervening into the economy through taxes, tariffs, and other policies, rather than allowing free trade across borders.

Intimate Sphere

The space of the family in the private realm of a society.

Legislative

The creation of manmade laws, as in an “artificial” social contract, rather than a natural order of things

Letters

A broad term that includes written documents of many kinds, especially literature and literary criticism

Neomercantalism

A“new merchant” economy that stressed state intervention to stabilize a nation’s wealth by maximizing the profit of exports and minimizing imports.

Occasional Music

Music for a specific occasion, like a religious holiday or a monarchical coronation.

Oikos

A Greek term meaning simultaneously the family, its property, and its household. This is the concept to which our modern sense of a “private” sphere traces back to. It is also the root of the word economy.

Physiocrats

18th century French economists who stressed the importance of agriculture and wanted to ground society in a “natural” order, in contrast to Rousseau’s social contract

Polarization

A separation of something into two contradictory or warring poles. Habermas discusses polarization in terms of the private separating from the public, for instance

Polis

The body of citizens in Ancient Greece, in contrast to the private “oikos.” This is the concept from which our modern idea of the “public” ultimately develops

Protectionism

An economic policy of protecting the industries internal to a state from foreign competition by cutting off or highly taxing international imports

Refeudalization

A return to a society in which the state is integrated with the public and private spheres, as in a feudal society, in which the king ultimately controls everything

Representative Publicness

The kind of publicity characteristic of the Renaissance, in which authorities like the Church or the king display, or represent, their authority publicly through ceremonies, symbols, and other spectacles

Social Sphere

Habermas sometimes using this phrase to refer narrowly to the economic aspects of a nation, the sphere in which private individuals engage in trade and commerce

Standing Army

Rather than an army enlisted to fight a specific war, a standing army is a permanent reserve of armed forces