Between Facts and Norms - Contributions to a ... - Blogs Unpad

381- ----- - ---- ---- ------ ------Civil Society and the Political Public Spheretional complexity and a weaker capacity for action, and despite thestructural disadvantages mentioned earlier, at the critical momentsof an accelerated history, these actors get the chance toreverse the normal circuits of communication in the political systemand the public sphere. In this way they can shift the entire system'smode of problem solving.The communication structures of the public sphere are linkedwith the private life spheres in a way that gives the civil-socialperiphery, in contrast to the political center, the advantage ofgreater sensitivity in detecting and identifying new problem situations.The great issues of the last decades give evidence for this.Consider, for example, the spiraling nuclear-arms race; considerthe risks involved in the peaceful use of atomic energy or in otherlarge-scale technological projects and scientific experimentation,such as genetic engineering; consider the ecological threats involvedin an overstrained natural environment (acid rain, waterpollution, species extinction, etc.); consider the dramatically progressingimpoverishment of the Third World and problems of theworld economic order; or consider such issues as feminism, increasingimmigration, and the associated problems of multiculturalism.Hardly any of these topics were initially brought up byexponents of the state apparatus, large organizations, or functionalsystems. Instead, they were broached by intellectuals, concernedcitizens, radical professionals, self-proclaimed "advocates," and thelike. Moving in from this outermost periphery, such issues forcetheir way into newspapers and interested associations, clubs, professionalorganizations, academies, and universities. They findforums, citizen initiatives, and other platforms before they catalyzethe growth of social movements and new subcultures.76 The lattercan in turn dramatize contributions, presenting them so effectivelythat the mass media take up the matter. Only through theircontroversial presentation in the media do such topics reach thelarger public and subsequently gain a place on the "public agenda."Sometimes the support of sensational actions, mass protests, andincessant campaigning is required before an issue can make its wayvia the surprising election of marginal candidates or radical parties,expanded platforms of"established" parties, important court decisions,and so on, into the core of the political system and therereceive formal consideration.