Iris Young does not reject the ideal of a public sphere, only its Enlightenment variety. She proposes to replace the ideal of the “civil public” with that of a heterogeneous public. In her recent work she has advocated a number of institutional measures that would guarantee and solidify group representation in such a public sphere. Yet wanting to retain the public sphere and according it a place in democratic theory is not compatible with the more radical critique of the ideal of impartial reason that Young also develops in sonic of her essays.