"Democratic governance rests on the capacity of and opportunity for citizens to engage in enlightened debate".
Public sphere is useful when thinking about the spaces available for public discussion and debate and thus the formation of public opinion in different societies.The basic ideal belief in public the place where citizens exchange ideas, information, attitudes,and opinions. Public sphere theory is that the government's laws and policies should be steered by the public sphere, and that the only legitimate governments are those that listen to the public sphere. Public sphere is a place where the formation of public opinion happen. Where all citizens have access. Where conference in unrestricted fashion based on the freedom of assembly, the freedom of association, the freedom to expression and publication of opinions about matters of general interest occur, which implies freedom from economic and political control. Where debate over the general rules governing relations are take place.
The development of the fully political public sphere occurred first in Britain in the eighteenth century. The public sphere became institutionalized within the European bourgeois constitutional states of the nineteenth century, where public consensus was enshrined as a way of checking domination. Though the concept of the public sphere originated in the 18th century, German sociologist Jürgen Habermas is credited with popularizing the term in his book 'The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere'. He argued that the fully developed public sphere was a result of many social conditions, which eventually shifted. Public sphere has two important functions with respect to the participatory development model:- first, democratisation of the process of development, and second, elaboration of its scope and objectives by bringing its political, cultural and ideological dimensions into the discussion. It indicates the potentials of public sphere to nurture a new political culture centred on development in grassroots democracy. Local democracy could administer distributive justice provided the participatory development model envisages regeneration of the public sphere as a critical space.
Coffee houses largely serve as centers of social interaction and served the job of public spheres in India. They are having a vital role in Kerala society. Coffee house provides patrons with a place to congregate, talk, write, read, entertain one another, or pass the time, whether individually or in small groups of two or three people. In India, many coffee culture has gained a lot of ground in last fifty years, these cafes are considered good venues to conduct meetings, political non political discussions friends hang about etc. The Indian Coffee House restaurant chain in India, run by a series of worker co-operative societies. It has strong presence across India with nearly 400 coffee houses. These places are meeting place for poets, artistes, literatiand people from the world of art and culture. In the early 1960s the coffee house became the intellectual battle ground of the famous hungry generations literal and cultural movement.
Now a days social media offers increasing opportunities for political communication and enable democratic capacities for political discussion within the virtual public sphere. The effect would be that citizens could challenge governments and corporations political and economic power. Additionally, new forms of political participation and information sources for theusers emerge with the Internet that can e.g. be utilised in online campaigns. However, the social media’s dominant uses are entertainment, consumerism, and content sharing among friends. Though social media provides new opportunities for political participation, however they warn users of risks to access unreliable sources. The Internet impacts the virtual public sphere in many ways but is not a free Utopian platform as some observers argued at the beginning of its history. Social media is a doubled-edged sword meaning that even though they can be used to show an improved image by managing the visibility, individuals are not in full control of their self-presentation. Mistakes, gaffes or scandals are now recorded therefore they are harder to deny, as they can be replayed by the media.
Once the role of public spheres in Kerala society was very active but now it's declining. Because in Kerala the new middle class is extremely consumerist. Self-aggrandizement and egotistic individualism have become their etiquette. The fact that increasing consumerism in the wake of globalization is a reason for pushing many of the middle class families towards the debt trap, criminalisation and family suicide. The influence of such a middle class contributes to the decline of public sphere.
Regeneration of public sphere naturally brings society back into the development discourse. In fact, the regeneration of public sphere offers a silver lining for democratization of the Kerala society in the future. The idea of the public sphere, preserved in the social welfare state mass democracy, an idea which calls for a rationalization of power through the medium of public discussion and it is highly required for an inclusive development of the society.
Anson P D Alexander
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