The Handbook of Public Sector Communication

1Public Sector Communication and Democracy

Michael X. Delli Carpini

Introduction

This chapter explores the various ways that citizens communicate with the state, and the relationship of these forms of communication to the theory and practice of democracy. I say “to democracy” rather than “in democracy” because communicative practices do not simply follow from the type of government or public sector, but rather are inextricably intertwined with it; as much cause as result. This mutual dependence is what John Dewey had in mind when he wrote that people “live in a community in virtue of the things they have in common and communication is the way they possess things in common” (1916, p. 7). Because of this, the relationship between communication and democracy is as relevant to non‐democracies and emerging democracies as to established ones.

The central argument of this chapter is threefold. First, that citizens'¹ primary role in the public sector is a discursive one; that is, to communicate with the state. Second, that states vary dramatically in the authority granted to citizens' public sector voices. And third, that the substance, participants, and structures that shape public sector communication define how more or less democratic a state is.

To make this argument, the chapter begins by defining the “essentially contestable” concepts (Gallie, 1955) of “the public sphere,” “the private sphere,” and the “sphere of public authority,” and their connections to “the public sector.” ...