Public Sphere Flashcards
What event triggered widespread protests against D.O.G.E./Musk and budget cuts to Medicaid, School Lunches, and Veterans’ Care?
Trump’s Inauguration on 20 January 2025
What were two significant movements that emerged following the Financial Crash of 2008?
- Tea Party in 2009
- Occupy Wall Street in 2011
What concept does Occupy Wall Street (OWS) relate to in terms of democracy?
Consensus
What is a question regarding the process for reaching consensus in OWS?
How does the process for reaching consensus work?
What are Town Halls in 2025 characterized by?
US Representatives face the anger of their constituents
What did a 2013 article in The Independent suggest about the British public?
‘British Public Wrong About Nearly Everything’
What did The Nation conclude about watching Fox News in 2012?
‘It’s Official: Watching Fox Makes You Stupider’
What is the concern surrounding ‘Fake News’?
What happens when you can’t trust what you read, hear or see via media?
Who is Jürgen Habermas and what is his focus?
He is a public intellectual focused on communication.
According to Habermas, what is guaranteed in the Public Sphere?
Access is guaranteed to all citizens.
What defines citizens acting as a public according to Habermas?
Dealing with matters of general interest without being subject to coercion.
What is the role of political control in the Public Sphere according to Habermas?
Subordinated to democratic demand that information be accessible to the public.
What freedoms does Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantee?
- Freedom of conscience and religion
- Freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression
- Freedom of peaceful assembly
- Freedom of association
What are the three dimensions of citizenship development in the West?
- 18th C. - civil rights
- 19th C. - political rights
- 20th C. - social rights
What significant transformation did society undergo from medieval to modern times?
The transformation of the Public Sphere.
What does the term ‘Divine Right of Kings’ refer to?
Absolute Monarchy in France
How did the monarch or feudal lord create the public sphere?
By presence
What principle did the Third Estate uphold during the French Revolution?
A means of transforming the nature of power.
What is the stance of the bourgeoisie regarding power during the rise of the Third Estate?
They reject ‘supervision’ but want power shared.
Why does Elizabeth Anderson argue that American workplaces function like dictatorships?
Because employers hold sweeping, unchecked power over workers’ lives—both on and off duty—similar to how dictators rule their subjects, often without transparency, accountability, or worker input.
What does Anderson mean by calling workplaces “private governments”?
She argues that workplaces operate as “private governments” because bosses can impose rules and sanctions without employee consent, unlike democratic public governments that are transparent and accountable to the people.
How did early free market thinkers like Adam Smith and Thomas Paine envision worker freedom?
They believed true freedom came from self-employment, where individuals owned their labor and weren’t subordinated to bosses—contrasting sharply with today’s dominance of wage labor under employer control.
