The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere

'Why is this such a vital study? Its significance rests in its analysis of one of the central notions on which both our political life and our political theories rest: 'public opinion'. Presidential candidates worry about it, the press talks about it, political scientists try to measure it, but Habermas is one of the few people to have actually sat down and tried to think about it, to ask what it means to have an 'opinion' that is not private, not idiosyncratic, but rather 'public'.'
James Schmidt, Boston University