Habermas' Key Contributions Habermas' Key Contributions 1. Re-defines what we mean by public .
Access is guaranteed to all citizens.
A portion of the public sphere comes into being in every conversation in which private individuals assemble to form a public body. They then behave neither like business or professional people transacting private affairs, nor like members of a constitutional order subject to the legal constraints of a state bureaucracy. Habermas's definition highlights the importance of free speech and consensus building in a public arena as essential to the development of a healthy public space. Argues that discursive action forms the basis of a healthy public sphere. Unlike the political scientists who posit institutions as the basis of public life, Habermas claims that public life is communication.