The New Public Sphere: Global Civil Society, Communication Networks, and Global Governance

TLDR

The public sphere, traditionally a national arena for idea exchange, has expanded globally due to globalization, with global civil society and communication networks reshaping the relationship between government and society. The paper examines how public diplomacy, acting through the global public sphere, extends traditional diplomacy beyond power negotiations by leveraging shared cultural meaning.

Abstract

The public sphere is the space of communication of ideas and projects that emerge from society and are addressed to the decision makers in the institutions of society. The global civil society is the organized expression of the values and interests of society. The relationships between government and civil society and their interaction via the public sphere define the polity of society. The process of globalization has shifted the debate from the national domain to the global debate, prompting the emergence of a global civil society and of ad hoc forms of global governance. Accordingly, the public sphere as the space of debate on public affairs has also shifted from the national to the global and is increasingly constructed around global communication networks. Public diplomacy, as the diplomacy of the public, not of the government, intervenes in this global public sphere, laying the ground for traditional forms of diplomacy to act beyond the strict negotiation of power relationships by building on shared cultural meaning, the essence of communication.