Conference paper

PUBLIC AND DEMOCRACY

Zvonko Posavec ; Faculty of Political Science, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia

Abstract

The author’s starting point is the assumption that the public is essentially political and also indispensable for democratic polity. After a brief analysis of the notions related to the concept of the public in different traditions, the author offers three essential elements for its formation: the liberal freedoms as a prerequisite of public life, the unseverable link between the public and democracy, and the legitimation and the control of power by means of the public. The public has a decisive role in all the functions of the state by ensuring three things: the legislature aspires to the public good, the public controls the parliament and the government, and the court decisions are overt. In contemporary society the public sphere is safeguarded by parties, associations, trade unions, electronic media and the press in the sense that they prevent the parties in power to lead arcane politics. In the end, the author champions the idea of a proper distinction between the private and the public sphere, since the total public would mean the death of freedom-loving democracy.

Keywords

democracy; state; public; liberalism

Hrčak ID:

22852

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/22852

Publication date:

26.8.2004.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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