B2699 - DEMOCRAZIA, POTERE E OPINIONE PUBBLICA

Learning outcomes

The course analyses the genealogy of the relationship power-opinion-public-democracy, which is constituted in political modernity, observing its genesis, its aporias, its theoretical and historical transformations. At the end of the course the student: - is familiar with the political authors who have contributed to the reflection on this relationship; - is able to understand the dialectic it establishes with other concepts of political modernity, such as domination, representation, freedom, both with respect to the crisis and to the new potentialities that the articulation of power-public-opinion-democracy is experiencing in the era of the digital revolution; - is able to apply these categories to the analysis of the present .

Course contents

The course is divided into three parts.

In the first part of the course, drawing also on the analyses developed by authors such as Alexis de Tocqueville and John Stuart Mill, it will be shown that, from the mid-nineteenth century onward, public opinion came to take on both the meaning of a critical authority in relation to the publicity normatively required by the exercise of political and social power, and that of a receptive authority in relation to forms of publicity disseminated in a demonstrative or manipulative manner in support of individuals and institutions, consumer goods, and political programs. The course will then focus on the social and political transformations produced between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries by the entry of the proletarian masses onto the political scene and by processes of democratization, which led the social sciences to devote particular attention to the phenomenon of public opinion and to its relationship with the elaboration of democratic processes. It will thus be shown that public opinion was also articulated as “mass opinion” (Tarde) or “group opinion” (Bentley), and became one of the key terms in twentieth-century reflection on democracy, its mechanisms, and its pathologies (Bryce, Lippmann, Dewey, Arendt).

In the second part of the course, attention will first be devoted to the further transformations affecting public opinion in relation to the emergence of ever-new forms of organization within democratic society. Particular emphasis will be placed on the theoretical elaborations developed within the Frankfurt School (Horkheimer and Adorno, Marcuse, Habermas), on the analyses produced by American political science in the 1950s (Lazarsfeld, Kaplan), and on the analyses developed in the context of a revision of Marxian categories and a rearticulation of critical and radical perspectives (Debord, Baudrillard, Bourdieu).

Finally, the last part of the course will be devoted both to the analysis of the crisis that, since the 1990s, has affected public opinion as a political space, up to the current debate on post-truth and fake news, and to a reflection on the new potentialities that public opinion experiences in the global age. This will be considered in light of the crisis of state institutions, the transformations of citizenship and democratic forms, new processes of political spatialization, the constitutionalization of a global public sphere, the spread of communications media, the specialization and dissemination of knowledge, and the presence of new digital media (Sunstein, Lévy, Han, Ferraris).

Readings/Bibliography

Students attending the course

Please, see the Italian version for the list of books.

Students not attending the course

Not attending students are kindly requested to meet the teacher at least once before the exam to get in touch with the program.

Teaching methods

20 two hours classes (twice a week for 10 weeks).

Assessment methods

Attending students who actively participate in the course may agree with the instructor to give a presentation during the final part of the course. In this case, assessment will be based on class participation (30%) and on the content of the presentation, as well as on the student’s ability to discuss it in class with classmates and the instructor (70%).

Alternatively, attending students will take an oral examination on the course content and on the texts prepared as indicated in the bibliography. For non-attending students as well, learning will be assessed through an oral examination during the official exam sessions, on the texts agreed upon with the instructor.

The oral examination is intended to assess the critical and methodological skills developed by the student in relation to the analysis, critique, and overall command of the concepts and issues addressed in preparation for the exam.

Whether students choose the in-class presentation option or the oral examination during the official exam sessions, an excellent grade will be awarded to those who demonstrate an organic understanding of the topics addressed, together with the ability to use them critically, as well as expressive competence and command of the relevant specialist terminology.

Any shortcomings in one or more of these aspects will result in a graded reduction of the mark, up to a negative assessment in cases where insufficient preparation and gaps in knowledge are identified.

Teaching tools

Films, audiovisual tools

Office hours

See the website of Maria Laura Lanzillo