Abstract
In the present essay, Jürgen Habermas's early sociological works will be examined in two respects: on the one hand, their stratified relationships to the conceptual constructions of Carl Schmitt and Rüdiger Altmann; on the other, his understanding of historical development in eighteenth-century England. The analysis through these two subjects maintains that the core of his conceptualization of the civil/bourgeois public sphere consists in the articulation between institutionalized political powers (not only government, but also parliament) and private citizens who generally criticize political affairs. In addition, the essay will also argue that his diagnosis of modern society depends especially on his critical attitude of intermediary organizations which attempt to affect political processes without public control in the re-politicized social sphere that emerged after the disappearance of the liberal distinction between the public and private realm.
