Abstract
This chapter is the first devoted to the group-based theory of politics. Its aim is to situate the pragmatist-based theory of publics in the context of the contemporary debate on the transformations of the public sphere, showing in particular that a pragmatist theory of democracy calls for a radical deconstruction of the Habermasian dualism of the state and the public sphere. Hannah Arendt’s notion of communicative power is discussed in relation to Follett’s theory of “power with”, and Habermas and Honneth’s theories of democracy are examined in turn. The chapter then engages contemporary economic and political theories of the commons, that I interpret as a political theory of public activation, one that helps us better grasp the political—and democratic—relevance of emerging economic practices such as peer production and political consumerism.
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Notes
- 1.
See the special issues recently devoted to this topic by the European Journal of Pragmatism and American Philosophy (2015/2), the Transactions of the C. S. Peirce Society (2017/1) and by the Journal of Speculative Philosophy (2017/2).
- 2.
- 3.
For a more extensive treatment of this topic, see Habermas (1996, Ch. 4).
- 4.
See the discussion of Follett in Chap. 4.
- 5.
See Frega (2017c).
- 6.
- 7.
For a more extended critique of Habermas’ epistemology, see Frega (2013b).
- 8.
See Chap. 5 and the next chapter.
- 9.
- 10.
See, in particular, Honneth (2015, Ch. 4).
- 11.
- 12.
In German ‘public’, ‘publicity’, and ‘public sphere’ are all translated with ‘Offentlichkeit’. This has given rise to some misunderstanding, particularly in the wake of Habermas’ discursivization of this notion.
- 13.
For an alternative interpretation of Dewey as the forefather of participatory democracy but not of deliberative democracy, see Jackson (2015).
- 14.
For an exhaustive overview of rival interpretations of contemporary interpretations of the commons, see Papadimitropoulos (2017).
- 15.
For an overview of the relevance of pragmatism in the study of the digital commons see Antic (2016). I thank Andreas for his useful comments and suggestions.
- 16.
See, for example, Morozov (2011).
- 17.
- 18.
These traits describe tendencies rather than absolute achievements. We need to assess their democratic impact in comparative terms, by comparing the degree of realization of these principles to that we can find in traditional forms of organization.
- 19.
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Frega, R. (2019). Democratic Publics. In: Pragmatism and the Wide View of Democracy. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-18561-9_9
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