State Transformation and the Structure of the Public Sphere

• In Event: 393 - Section on Sociology of Development Roundtables (one-hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 05. Governance, Bureaucracy and the State

Abstract

This paper argues that the nature of state transformation affects the structure of the public sphere. In its gradual transition toward socialism, the contemporary Venezuelan state has pursued two distinct agendas: an increasingly radical-socialist one articulated in state words, and a moderate-nationalist one maintained in policy implementation. Focusing on the peasant public sphere, we show that this state transformation undergirds a public sphere characterized by intra-public sphere contradictions. Whereas Habermas shows that vertical contradictions between the public sphere and the state were characteristic of the transition from absolutism to bourgeois society, we find horizontal contradictions within the public sphere to be characteristic of Venezuela’s gradual transition from capitalism to socialism. We support these arguments with an analysis of major national-level juridical reforms and presidential discourse; analysis of the land structure, loans emitted, and marketing assistance; and a survey of organizations in the peasant public sphere. In light of our findings, we discuss several ways state transformations affect the public sphere.

Authors

• Simeon J. Newman, University of Michigan

• Laura J. Enriquez, University of California-Berkeley