The notion of communicative rationality in the public sphere is therefore heavily indebted to Immanuel Kant's formulation of the public use of reason in What is Enlightenment? Habermas argues that the bourgeoisie who participated in this incipient public sphere universalized those aspects of their class that enabled them to present the public sphere as inclusive—he even goes so far as to say that a public sphere that operates upon principles of exclusivity is not a public sphere at all. The focus on foundations of democracy established in this work carried over to his later examination in The Theory of Communicative Action that greater democratization and the reduction to barriers to participation in public discourse (some of which he identified in the first public sphere of the Enlightenment) could open the door to a more open
The notion of communicative rationality within the public sphere is heavily influenced by Immanuel Kant's concept of reason's public use as outlined in "What is Enlightenment?" Habermas argues that the bourgeoisie who participated in this nascent public sphere universalized aspects of their class that enabled them to present the public sphere as inclusive. He even asserts that a public sphere based on exclusivity is not a genuine public sphere. The focus on democratic foundations established in his earlier work, "The Theory of Communicative Action," carried over to the idea that greater democratization and reducing barriers to participation in public discourse (some of which he identified in the first public sphere of the Enlightenment) could lead to a more open one.