Growing inequality undermines the public sphere until the political system crumbles from within.

Evidence

Precisely the disturbing combination of traditional right-wing populism – ‘We are the people’ – with the libertarian self-centredness of freaked-out conspiracy theorists, who defend their individual liberties against imagined oppression by an allegedly merely sham democratic constitutional state, is reason enough to turn the tables. In the on the whole growing capitalist societies of our – as it now transpires – not particularly stable democracies, this surprising potential for resistance develops and causes the political system to crumble from within once growing social inequalities have sufficiently undermined the political public sphere. — Jürgen Habermas, A New Structural Transformation of the…, 104

Categorization

• XREF: Echoes the degradation-of-public-sphere thesis from the 1962 classic, now driven by inequality rather than media commodification. — connects to: The public sphere collapses when the public becomes a statistical artifact — James W. Carey, Communication as Culture- Essays on…, 647; Raised material expectations amid inequality create explosive political potential; Political interdependence between groups suppresses open hostility in inequality — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice: Fifty Years…, 669 (+3 more)
• DEEPTHINKING: Fuses right-wing populism and conspiracy-theory individualism into a single diagnostic of public-sphere collapse — a compressed account that resists easy paraphrase.

Related

• Real political participation requires eliminating economic inequality as a cause of unequal political access. (similarity 0.80)

Broader Connections

• The public sphere collapses when the public becomes a statistical artifact #expands (0.85) — James W. Carey, Communication as Culture- Essays on…, 647
• Formal political equality masks deep economic servitude that hollows out democracy #expands (0.80) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 406
• Raised material expectations amid inequality create explosive political potential #complicates (0.78)
• Political interdependence between groups suppresses open hostility in inequality #qualifies (0.75) — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice, 669