The Phantom Public.

LIPPMANN, Walter.

Verlag: Harcourt Brace and Company, New York, 1925

Beschreibung

Half title with works by Lippmann on the verso + TP + [5] = Dedication page + [7] = Quote page + [9] = Contents + half title + 12-205 + 1 blank leaf, Octavo. First Edition. Lippmann's Disillusionment with American "Democracy" Grows Even Worse This book is a follow-up to his popular 1922 work, Public Opinion. Here Lippmann moves even further into his disillusionment with democratic politics. This was partly in response to the rise of fascism under Benito Mussolini in Italy, but that was only one concrete confirmation of Lippmann's worst fears for democracy.Here he presents an even more forceful critique of what he takes to be mistaken conceptions of "the public" found in popular democratic theory. Lippmann counters that the public is none of the things posited by these popular theories. Instead, the public is but a "mere phantom," an abstraction, embedded in a "false philosophy" that depends on a "mystical notion of society." Democratic theories, he argues, vaguely assert that the public can act competently to direct public affairs and that the functioning of government is the will of the people, but Lippmann dismisses such notions of the capacities of the public as a fiction. Against these idealizations, Lippmann posits that society is made up of two types of people: agents and bystanders (also referred to as insiders and outsiders). The agent is someone who can act "executively' on the basis of his own opinions to address the substance of an issue, and the bystander is the public, merely a spectator of action. But these roles are not fixed or mutually exclusive. "The actors in one affair are the spectators of another, and men are continually passing back and forth between the field where they are executives and the field where they are members of a public. The distinction between agents and bystanders… is not an absolute one." Most of the time, however, the public is just a "deaf spectator in the back row" because, for the most part, individuals are more interested in their private affairs than in matters that govern society and they know very little about public issues. According to Lippmann, it is "the function of public opinion to check the use of force" by using its own force. Public opinion responds to failures in the administration of government by deciding, through voting, whether to throw one party out in favor or another. The public, however, moves to such an action not by its own volition but by being led there by the insiders who can identify and assess the situation for them. The public is incapable of deciding rationally about whether there is a crisis: "Public opinion is not a rational force… it does not reason, investigate, invent, persuade, bargain, or settle."Lippmann is openly elitist. His theory of society is a theory that puts its trust chiefly in the individuals directly concerned, i.e. the "insiders," and not the "public."The book famously provoked a response from philosopher John Dewey, who argued in his 1927 book, The Public and its Problems, that the public was not a phantom but merely "in eclipse" and that robust democratic politics are possible. Today, the exchange between Lippmann and Dewey continues to be important for their critique of contemporary civic journalism. Original publisher's blue cloth which is lightly stained and bumped along with a well-preserved printed label on a white field to the spine (which is just a bit sun darkened). There is some very minor wear to the spine tips. With a former owner's 2634 Le Conte Ave. Berkeley Feb. 1926). Otherwise, a clean, tight, and bright copy of this important political critique by Lippmann. ADDITIONAL PHOTOS AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST. Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers 1214

Bibliografische Details

Titel: The Phantom Public.

Verlag: Harcourt Brace and Company, New York

Erscheinungsdatum: 1925

Auflage: FIRST EDITION.