Abstract

This essay examines the political significance of the «public» within the US social, legal and political sciences during the transition from the nineteenth to the twentieth century. The concept is analysed against a backdrop of social conflict and political crisis, within which «the public» is invoked in two apparently contradictory senses: sometimes it suggests a subject coextensive with the political community; at others it is seen as a distinct segment of society onto which ideals of moderation and reasonableness are projected. This aspect is explored across a range of disciplinary fields, with a particular focus on the efforts of the social, legal and political sciences to establish the presence of the public as a principle of social order