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Public Sphere, Postmodernism and Polemic

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2013

James Johnson  and
Dana R. Villa
James Johnson
Affiliation:
University of Rochester
Dana R. Villa
Affiliation:
Amherst College
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Abstract

Theories of the public sphere, as standardly formulated, aim to specify the minimal, necessary conditions for a discursive realm free of coercion or manipulation. In his article in this Review in September 1992, Dana Villa urged us to reconsider this standard account. He argued that when read in light of postmodernist theory, Hannah Arendt provides the basis for a revised conception of the public sphere that privileges plurality and difference over consensus. Jim Johnson suggests that Villa's analysis is a thinly veiled polemic against critical theory. Johnson argues that, as critique, Villa's argument is neither decisive nor encompassing, and that as polemic it blinds Villa to potentially fruitful disagreements with critical theorists. Villa replies that Johnson misses the synthetic thrust of the original article because he identified public realm theory too narrowly with Habermas. Thus, he misconstrues the dialogue Villa sought to facilitate between Arendt and postmodernism.

Type
Controversy
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 88 , Issue 2 , June 1994 , pp. 427 - 433
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1994

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