DownloadThe Portobello Bookshop Gift Guide 2024

Public Values and Public Interest

Counterbalancing Economic Individualism

Barry Bozeman author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Georgetown University Press

Published:24th Oct '07

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

Public Values and Public Interest cover

Hooray for Barry Bozeman! The case he makes for 'managing publicness' is brilliant and a must-read for everyone interested in advancing the common good in an age of economic individualism... With this book, Bozeman joins the august ranks of the truly important contemporary moral philosophers. -- John M. Bryson, associate dean for research and centers, Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota Bozeman's analysis merits the attention of any serious scholar or policymaker concerned with the public interest, public goods, public policy, and public management, and with theory and practice pertaining to the roles of the governmental and nongovernmental institutions of a nation. -- Hal G. Rainey, Alumni Foundation Distinguished Professor, School of Public and International Affairs, The University of Georgia

Economic individualism and market-based values dominate today's policymaking and public management circles - often at the expense of the common good. This title demonstrates the continuing need for public interest theory in government. It offers a direct theoretical challenge to the 'utility of economic individualism'.Economic individualism and market-based values dominate today's policymaking and public management circles - often at the expense of the common good. In his new book, Barry Bozeman demonstrates the continuing need for public interest theory in government. "Public Values and Public Interest" offers a direct theoretical challenge to the "utility of economic individualism," the prevailing political theory in the western world. The book's arguments are steeped in a practical and practicable theory that advances public interest as a viable and important measure in any analysis of policy or public administration. According to Bozeman, public interest theory offers a dynamic and flexible approach that easily adapts to changing situations and balances today's market-driven attitudes with the concepts of common good advocated by Aristotle, Saint Thomas Aquinas, John Locke, and John Dewey. In constructing the case for adopting a new governmental paradigm based on what he terms "managing publicness," Bozeman demonstrates why economic indices alone fail to adequately value social choice in many cases. He explores the implications of privatization of a wide array of governmental services - among them Social Security, defense, prisons, and water supplies. Bozeman constructs analyses from both perspectives in an extended study of genetically modified crops to compare the policy outcomes using different core values and questions the public value of engaging in the practice solely for the sake of cheaper food. Thoughtful, challenging, and timely, "Public Values and Public Interest" shows how the quest for fairness can once again play a full part in public policy debates and public administration.

Provides such a thorough and thoughtful plea for the need of a continuous emphasis on what is public about government conduct and why; it is, as such, the first of its kind. Public Administration Review

  • Winner of Herbert A. Simon Book Award 6 (United States)
  • Winner of Public Administration Section: Herbert A. Simon Book Award (United States).
  • Winner of Herbert A. Simon Book Award.

ISBN: 9781589011779

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: 363g

224 pages