Democracy Today.indb - Universidade do Minho

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DEMOCRACY TODAY
which makes it all the more surprising that the vast application and
recognised importance for a democracy is not matched by equal concern
about what its central features are. For example, “The Encyclopedia
of Democracy” (1995) does not even list the term. [3]
When trying to find a definition, the first hurdle to overcome is
the widespread use of different expressions: Everything from “public
sphere” and “public space” to “public realm” and even simply “public”
is employed, as well as the closely related term “public opinion”. From
now on, the expression “public realm” shall be adopted, following
Hannah Arendt in her seminal work “The Human Condition” (1973).
This is not only justified because she is perhaps the most consequent
theorist of the public realm in relation to antiquity, but also because
it demarcates the concept from the public sphere whose meaning is
usually strongly linked to Jürgen Habermas’ influential study “The
Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere” (1991). In his work, the
public sphere refers to a space between state and society in which civil
society debates and reflects upon public concerns in an open, mostly
unstructured environment. As will be shown, this notion is different
from its meaning in the context of ancient Athens, where the public
realm formed the focal point of the community and was structured in
several ways. [4] The political reality there, 2’500 years ago, is now to be
described in order to highlight the central features of a public realm (if
not indicated differently, the description follows Bleicken 1995).
For some 150 years, Athenian democracy was characterised by
an outstanding amount of participation by its citizens. The two main
democratic institutions were the plenary assembly and the courts.
Both were ascribed detailed proceedings and competences and also a
corresponding site where meetings were held and which was physically
defined. [5] To prevent a single person or a faction from dominating
3
A glance at various encyclopaedias of democracy or political science in general reveals
that the term ‘public sphere’, or a close correlate, is usually granted minor attention – if
listed at all – with respect to the more dominant expression of ‘public opinion’.
4
It is remarkable that this difference in conclusion is contrasted by a great deal of agreement
regarding the analysis of the problem, especially that the public sphere has increasingly
been invaded by intimate and economic elements which in antiquity were ascribed
to the private realm (oikos) (e.g. Habermas 1991: 57/76/262, Arendt 2002: 39/60/88/157).
5
The plenary assembly originally met at the agora but had to change site, because it became
too small as more people were enabled to participate. They moved to the Pnyx that allowed