Abstract
Although the public–private distinction is a historical construction it has been deeply internalized and taken for granted in Western ways of thinking about society and politics. Therefore, we often apply it uncritically as a way to categorizing and coding non-Western societies. Doing so unreflectively may distort our observations as well as policies of state- and peacebuilding. I outline the history of the public–private distinction by emphasizing its role in state-formation processes. This distinction was essential to the formation of the state and society as distinct categories. Indeed, it was and is a pre-condition of the autonomy of the state.
Notes
6. Luhmann argues that the state is the self-description of the political system. Since the public–private distinction is central to the creation of the state, this code must be a pre-condition of the political system.
25. Since the 1980s the public/private distinction has been eroded in many areas of legal doctrine. See CitationStone, ‘Corporate Vices’.
35. Nietzsche, quoted in CitationStrong, The Self and Political Order, 168.
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