| This dissertation applies public sphere theory to the inter-state system. I argue that the globalization of publicity---the worldwide rise of literacy, deliberative forums, free press and other media---has led to the emergence of public spheres in the states system. At any level public spheres transform the character of political authority, from arbitrary and 'embodied' to accountable and lodged in reason and critical discourse. But public sphere theory was developed in the domestic context, and anarchy complicates its application at the global level.; Chapter Two articulates a causal argument for how public spheres form that is agnostic about the actors and their social environment. Direct publicity, or discussion in forums, generates specific speech acts and norms of discursive reciprocity that over time become institutionalized. At the same time, mediated publicity enables those outside decision-making forums to become invested in the discussion and have an impact on its content and course. Direct and mediated publicity together consolidate public spheres.; The problem of violence looms in the background of any attempt at public sphere governance. Positive law solves this problem for domestic public spheres. Chapter Three argues that in anarchy the problem is solved through functional equivalents that emerge endogenously in the states system---international society and inter-state public spheres. Cosmopolitan and international public sphere theorists have not developed this level of international public spheres or seen its crucial function.; The remaining chapters demonstrate that the Concert of Europe marked the first international public sphere. Chapter Four discusses public sphere antecedents and the Congress of Vienna in 1814/5 as a founding. Chapter Five demonstrates the power of publicity and initial public sphere effects, analyzing great power discussions at the Congresses of Troppau, Laibach, and Verona in 1821--2. Chapter Six examines great power discussions in the 1820s surrounding the Greek revolt against Ottoman authority in the Balkans. I argue that from the resources the great powers developed in the post-Vienna period, a public sphere surrounding the management of Balkan violence emerged that over the century enabled the birth of national states without great power war. |
