From the Public Square to the Democratic Square

Abstract

This article critiques the dominant model of the public square as a mineral, geometric, and nature-excluding space, arguing that it functions historically as a device of political control rather than as a genuinely democratic environment. Through a critical reading of emblematic squares from imperial, colonial, and totalitarian contexts, the text shows how the separation of politics from nature produces intertwined ecological and democratic failures. In contrast, the article reconstructs an alternative genealogy of the democratic square — rooted in ancient agoras, republican forums, and Mediterranean traditions — in which public space emerges as an ecologically embedded, socially plural, and action-oriented landscape. Integrating nature into public squares is thus presented not as an aesthetic or environmental add-on, but as a fundamental condition for democratic life.