For Habermas, the success of the public sphere was founded on rational– critical dialog,
where everyone has the ability to participate equally and where the best communication
skill is the power of argument. Even though these conditions were at least partially met, the
still elite played an important positive role in the public sphere. Because the public sphere
depends on two important criteria, namely, freedom from coercion and commitment to
logic, without which the ideal of the public sphere is never fully achieved.