ABSTRACT
Public space is the arena of debate concerning the multiple ‘goods’ and demands for the ‘good’ that ground alternative notions concerning the ‘good society’. The composition of the public has a dramatic effect upon what constitutes a ‘people’ whose ‘will’ has to be counted in policy-making debates. Indeed, as P. Rosanvallon argues it was the power of publics, composed of watching and listening individuals everywhere sharing and debating, able to turn the tables on elites, that was critical for what was to count as ‘democracy’. Given contemporary inequalities individuals combine in protests, social movements, and more formal organisations to address issues and achieve greater equality. Institutionalised democracy is in a sense the formalisation through laws of the compromises reached between those who demand freedom with equality for all against those who instead insist on separating their own rights to the freedom to accumulate private riches, privileges and powers from equal access to such wealth, privileges and powers for all.
