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Is There a Belgian Public Sphere? What the Case of a Federal Multilingual Country Can Contribute to the Debate on Transnational Public Spheres, and Vice Versa

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Multinational Federalism

Part of the book series: The Comparative Territorial Politics series ((COMPTPOL))

Abstract

The debate on democratic legitimacy of transnational forms of governance has resulted in growing academic interest regarding the possible emergence of transnational public spheres. In line with the basic premises of public sphere theory, many authors argue that the existence of such transnational public spheres is a necessary condition for the development of democratic participation on the increasing number of political decisions taken at a transnational level, which in turn is a necessary condition for the democratic legitimacy of these transnational political arenas. As potential carriers of such public spheres, mass media are considered as a crucial factor in this process.

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Authors
  1. Dave Sinardet
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Philosophy, University of Montreal, Canada

    Michel Seymour (Professor) (Professor)

  2. Department of Political Science, University of Quebec, Montreal, Canada

    Alain-G. Gagnon (Professor) (Professor)

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© 2012 Dave Sinardet

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Sinardet, D. (2012). Is There a Belgian Public Sphere? What the Case of a Federal Multilingual Country Can Contribute to the Debate on Transnational Public Spheres, and Vice Versa. In: Seymour, M., Gagnon, AG. (eds) Multinational Federalism. The Comparative Territorial Politics series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137016744_9

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