Philosophy Dictionary of Arguments

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Public opinion: Public opinion is attitudes and beliefs of a population on a particular topic. It is a complex and dynamic phenomenon that is influenced by social class, race, ethnicity, gender, age, education, and political beliefs. See also Public sphere, Politics, Society, Community, Social Media, Ideology, Media, Education, Misinformation.
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Annotation: The above characterizations of concepts are neither definitions nor exhausting presentations of problems related to them. Instead, they are intended to give a short introduction to the contributions below. – Lexicon of Arguments.

 
Author Concept Summary/Quotes Sources

Niklas Luhmann on Public Opinion - Dictionary of Arguments

Habermas IV 508
Public opinion/Luhmann/Habermas: The two simultaneously existing imperatives of trust of private investors and the trust of the masses in the political system clash above all in the political public sphere.
Luhmann: The "public opinion" that is articulated in the political public sphere means something different from the perspective of the lifeworld than from the system perspective of the state apparatus.(1)
Habermas IV 509
Habermas: On the one hand, the demoscopically recorded public opinion or the will of voters, parties and associations is regarded as a pluralistic expression of a general interest, whereby the social consensus is regarded as the first link in the chain of political will formation and as the basis of legitimation. On the other hand, the same consensus is seen as the result of legitimation procurement - it is seen as the last link in the chain of production of mass loyalty with which the political system equips itself to make itself independent of lifeworld restrictions.
These two lines of interpretation are wrongly compared as normative and empirical approaches; in fact, however, both views cover only one aspect of mass democracy. The decision-making process created through party competition is the result of both: the pressure of communicative value and norm-building processes on the one hand, and the push of organisational achievements of the political system on the other.


1.N.Luhmann, Öffentliche Meinung, in: ders. Politische Planung, Opladen 1971, S. 9ff.


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Explanation of symbols: Roman numerals indicate the source, arabic numerals indicate the page number. The corresponding books are indicated on the right hand side. ((s)…): Comment by the sender of the contribution. Translations: Dictionary of Arguments
The note [Concept/Author], [Author1]Vs[Author2] or [Author]Vs[term] resp. "problem:"/"solution:", "old:"/"new:" and "thesis:" is an addition from the Dictionary of Arguments. If a German edition is specified, the page numbers refer to this edition.

AU I
N. Luhmann
Introduction to Systems Theory, Lectures Universität Bielefeld 1991/1992
German Edition:
Einführung in die Systemtheorie Heidelberg 1992

Lu I
N. Luhmann
Die Kunst der Gesellschaft Frankfurt 1997

Ha I
J. Habermas
Der philosophische Diskurs der Moderne Frankfurt 1988

Ha III
Jürgen Habermas
Theorie des kommunikativen Handelns Bd. I Frankfurt/M. 1981

Ha IV
Jürgen Habermas
Theorie des kommunikativen Handelns Bd. II Frankfurt/M. 1981


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Ed. Martin Schulz, access date 2024-04-28
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