The subversion of the Offentlichkeit in Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere by Jurgen Habermas

This paper aims to elucidate the central problem subscribed in the context of bourgeois publicity: the subversion of the principle of publicity (Offentlichkeit). This problem is analyzed from the historical point of view in the work Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere, and it is inserted in the context where it develops the notion of public sphere: a forum in which public opinion is formed (salons, books, journals). Opinion which had at first critical functions in relation to power and which was later refunctionalized to canalize the consent of the governed ones. To this end, it is clear as Habermas addresses the critical and manipulative functions of publicity. In this sense, this paper clarifies and identifies what the principle of publicity is and why it is subverted. The text is divided in three parts: the relationship of the literary public sphere to political public sphere (1); the publicity as a mediation principle between politics and morality (2); and, finally, the subversion of the publicity principle (3).