Public space and democracy

Abstract

In this article we aim to present an interpretation of a concept that has accompanied Jürgen Habermas throughout his career: the notion of space or the public sphere. The thread of our argument is in the tension between facticity and normativity which makes up the Habermasian theory, past and present, on the public sphere (here analysed in its political variant). This analysis will have two interdependent theoretical levels. On the one hand, a theoretical level that relies on the logical relations between the concepts that constitute Habermasian political theory, without ignoring the implications of the presuppositions (sometimes implicit) of this conceptual body. On the other hand, this analysis will cover a dimension related to the fundamental distinction between two types of facticity detectable in the Habermasian definition of the concept of the public sphere. Thus, we shall speak about intellectual (or internal) facticity and historical (or external) facticity. It is our intention to demonstrate that this second analytical level - in which two types of facticity will be distinguished and confronted - holds significant consequences over the first. This distinction will allow us to interpret the work of Habermas as being characterised by the continuity of a certain group of presuppositions and by the evolution of the sophistication of the argument, through a constant effort to maintain the internal coherence of his project, and through a fundamental intention - the defence of the emancipatory interest of the human being.