Public Law Researsh

Analyzing the fundamental conflicts of the public sphere and the neutrality theory of the government in the context of liberalism in Habermas's thought

Articles in Press

Document Type : Research Paper

Author

hasan mohammadi

PhD graduate of Public Law, Faculty of Law, Qom University, Qom, Iran

https://doi.org/10.22054/qjpl.2025.82609.3052
Abstract
The neutrality approach, relying on secularism and separating the public from the private and the right from the virtue, compared to the perfectionist approach to the government, has provided a suitable platform for the emergence and growth of the public sphere. The existence of principled harmony (freedom, equality, prohibition of exclusion) as well as the harmony of effects (pluralism, tolerance, segregation, recognition of right to wrong, private and public autonomy) in the idea of neutrality and the public sphere, causes more solidarity between these two ideas. However, while paying attention to this harmony, the fundamental conflicts between these two theories have been noticed by scholars. Therefore, in this article, we address the question of which inconsistencies between the theory of neutrality and the idea of the public sphere have threatened the realization of public discourse in a democratic context? Jürgen Habermas has identified the conflict of solidarity with individualism and the conflict in the concept of autonomy as the most important challenges of the public sphere in the context of the theory of neutrality.

Keywords

public
sphere
neutrality
conflicts
habermas
Subjects
Public Law Researsh

Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript
Available Online from 11 November 2025

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