Both liberal and socialist public-sphere models wrongly assumed the public can control the state
Evidence
A further problematic assumption was shared by both the liberal model of the bourgeois public sphere and its socialist counter-model: the assumption that the public can easily control the state apparatus. This assumption was closely related to the first. For if there was a `natural order’ in the reproduction of life, an elaborate apparatus would not be necessary to guarantee it. In reality, however, an ever more powerful administrative state was developing, and no attempt at supervision by a reasoning public seemed to be able to make any impression on it. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2375
Categorization
- XREF: connects to: Liberal democracies are not direct-access societies but elite-mediated ones — Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular:…, 26; Marx’s counter-model grounded autonomy in the public sphere rather than private property — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 2369; Liberal democratic values are ambiguous and can legitimize domination — Cristian Tileagă, The Nature of Prejudice: Society,…, 114 (+1 more)
Broader Connections
- The liberal public sphere is necessarily structured by power, not merely imperfect
#expands(0.85) — Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular, 897 - Liberal democracies are not direct-access societies but elite-mediated ones
#expands(0.80) — Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular, 26 - Marx’s counter-model grounded autonomy in the public sphere rather than private property
#corroborates(0.80) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2369 - Liberal democratic values are ambiguous and can legitimize domination
#expands(0.75) — Cristian Tileagă, The Nature of Prejudice, 114