The Public on the Public : The British Public As Trust, Reflexivity and Political Foreclosure

In Britain, the resistance to popular determination allowed by the financial construct of the public has been so successful that this term, public, must be re-read as politically paralyzing. The problem, our problem, is the public - which we are so often told will bring us together and provide for us - and it is this we must move beyond. The Public on the Public suggests that in the United Kingdom efforts to resuscitate the public as a popular opposition to global capital's narrowing elite are misguided. Tracking Britain's understanding of the public from the inception of its state, this discussion intervenes in longstanding debates about the decline of the public, stressing rather the public's ongoing and anti-popular constitutional role as the continuity of financial trust. It follows the fiscal duties of the social and cultural life of the public, and describes how the public protects itself from popular sovereignty through systems of self-reporting within, across, and by closed-circuit institutions, from the party system to the BBC and the heritage of commonwealth, and the related media, arts, and educational outlets that support these. It also suggests, however, that recently constitutional fissures have allowed us to look beyond this public to more substantial bases of popular and political action Front Matter....Pages i-vii Introduction: We Are Not ‘the Public’....Pages 1-12 The Public as Financial Trust....Pages 13-31 The Public as Cultural Commonwealth....Pages 32-54 Public Participation as Debt Demand....Pages 55-76 Public Reflexivity as Political Foreclosure....Pages 78-103 The Arts of Public Value....Pages 104-119 Coda: On Not Saving ‘the Public’....Pages 121-121 Back Matter....Pages 125-144 Cover 1 Half-Title 2 Title 4 Copyright 5 Contents 6 Acknowledgements 7 1 Introduction: We Are Not ‘the Public’ 9 2 The Public as Financial Trust 21 3 The Public as Cultural Commonwealth 40 4 Public Participation as Debt Demand 63 5 Public Reflexivity as Political Foreclosure 86 6 The Arts of Public Value 112 7 Coda: On Not Saving ‘the Public’ 129 Bibliography 133 Index 148