Rebuilding Latin American Thinking about Democracy: the Contributions of Gino Germani and Carlos Cossio to Discussions about Public Opinion

Abstract

his article rebuilds and puts in dialogue the contributions made by Gino Germani and Carlos Cossio, between the 1940s and 1960s, to discussions about public opinion, engaging from Latin America, in the problematization of democracy. Through the analysis of a corpus of texts we show how both authors put in question the “enlightenment” notion of public opinion, noting the shifts and continuities that involve the reflections about it. By submitting to critics and review this conception, the work of both authors contribute to imagine the public spheres that were possible in mass society. Their ideas about public opinion nourish, as we argue, the project of a liberal representative democracy with full participation of people, supported by a pluralistic public life. To that extent, those ideas allow differentiate the thought of Germani and Cossio from the leftist Latin American thought, as from the reactionary and liberal-conservative positions