Page 16 - Democracy and the Public Sphere

Excavations: The History of a Concept 11

attempts are made to control and censor, including stamp taxes, which
remain in place until the mid-nineteenth century. But they enjoy
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only mixed success. ‘[B]esides the new, large daily newspapers like
The Times (1785), other institutions of the public refl ecting critically
on political issues arose in these years … [P]ublic meetings increased
in size and frequency. Political associations too were formed in great
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numbers.’ By the end of the eighteenth century, ‘loosely knit clubs’
and unstable alliances had transformed themselves into parties with

clear lines of demarcation and, for the first time, extra-parliamentary
structures. ‘Public opinion’ was increasingly invoked by opposition
and ministers alike. Finally, the extension of the franchise to the
middle classes in 1832, and the publication of the fi rst issue-based
election manifesto, signalled the transformation of Parliament, ‘for
a long time the target of critical comment by public opinion, into
the very organ of this public opinion’. 34
By contrast, the French story is more staccato. Constitutional
props, lacking in Britain, underpinned the proliferation of daily
press and parliamentary factions after the Revolution. Yet they were
also symptomatic of the precarious nature of the revolutionary
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public sphere. Before the Revolution, strict censorship had made
for a clandestine press, and subsequent constitutional settlements
were punctuated by periods of terror. There was a lack, in all but
name, of an assembly of estates suitable for reformation into a
modern parliament, and a more deeply entrenched gulf between
the bourgeoisie and nobility. In Germany, the growth of politically
oriented reading societies and critical journals still met with ‘the
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brutal reaction of the princes’ at the end of the eighteenth century.
Such reaction, of course, attested to the growing critical strength of
a ‘bourgeois publicity’ transforming the political landscape.
But Habermas does not simply document the rise of public opinion.
He is also concerned with shifts in, and struggles over, the very
meaning of ‘public opinion’. In the prehistory of the phrase, ‘opinion’
harboured negative connotations. Deriving from the Latin opinio and
associated with the Greek doxa, ‘opinion’ suggested judgment based
on presumption rather than reason. A further usage linked the word
to reputation or esteem. It lacked the fundamental features of critical

reflection, validity or publicness which only came to the fore during
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the eighteenth century. In the mid-seventeenth century, Hobbes
serves as an unwitting signpost towards this later development.
For Hobbes, living in the shadow of the Civil War, it was necessary
to purge religious conviction from the purview of state authority.

23/8/05 09:36:20
Goode 01 chaps 11
Goode 01 chaps 11 23/8/05 09:36:20