Skip over navigation  Structural Transformation of the Public
Sphere  Jurgen Habermas  On The Concept of Public Opinion  The
Transformation of the Public Sphere's Political Function
Important Quotes          However, modern public opinion is
something of a fiction. It is needed to legitimate the power of
governments, but it cannot be accurately described or analyzed.
The various approaches to it seem to be flawed. One can either
claim that a critical public exists, surrounded by an
uneducated, uncritical mass public, as Mill and Tocqueville
argued, or claim that public opinion exists in state and social
institutions. This removes some of the critical functions of the
public, and confuses it with the institutions that surround it.
Whatever MPs may claim, the British Parliament is not the center
of public opinion.  Habemas's assessment of social-psychological
approaches to public opinion is almost a vindication of his own
work. Unlike social psychologists, Habermas believes that the
science of group behavior c