Des publics fantomatiques

Citizen participation as observed in the different bodies of State apparatus is regularly criticized for its low impact on political decisions and action. Careful ethnographic examination of these areas reveals not only an absence of the positive effects expected, but an actual negative outcome inherent in this ‘weak participation’. When applied to democratic interaction, these negative effects result first from ‘demophobic’ reflexes, habits and techniques engendered by those who organise participation, then from the presence there of a ‘phantom public’. If such phantom publics are more than a mere abstraction (W. Lippmann), how can their formation be observed and studied as reality in the making (J. Dewey)? The study carried out in Belgium and the United States explores three sets of dynamics: erring ways, virtualisation and disintegration of citizen involvement