Public Values ​​and Public Interest: Countering Economic Individualism

Bozeman, Barry. (2007). Public values ​​and public interest: counterweight to economic individualism. Georgetown University Press, DC: Beryl A. Radin. P. 1+186. ISBN 978-1-58901-177-9.

Reviewed by Billy Best, University of West Florida.

Public Values ​​and the Public Interest: Countering Economic Individualism is a unique academic masterpiece by Barry Bozeman that provides a deep and compelling understanding of what comprises public values, the public interest, public goods, the public domain, and explains with examples reflective. , on ways to manage the public interest with a term he coined “advertising management.” Bozeman’s argument is that everyone’s voice can and should be heard in determining the public interest. Rightly so, he goes on to explain the term in detail. “An ideal public interest refers to those outcomes that best serve the long-term survival and well-being of a social collective construed as a ‘public’. This book was crafted with many real-life analogies to help practitioners students and who matter (especially those who represent the public in public administration and other political positions) in the quest to create public policy that is not based overwhelmingly on economics, but on what Bozeman has called “public values”. they are the normative consensus of rights, benefits and prerogatives to which all citizens should be entitled, and these principles of public value should orchestrate the direction in which public policies are created.

Bozeman gives the genesis of public interest theory from the philosophical mind of Aristotle, but he does not stop there. Bozeman lists Saint Thomas Aquinas and John Locke as contributors to public interest theory from the first millennium. Furthermore, Bozeman suggests that public interest theory is stuck, as a course of study, in contemporary times, because economic studies (which are quantitative and behaviorally based) fit better with the philosophy of economic individualism. With more of the world’s economies based on economic individualism, everyone has the opportunity to accumulate wealth. In short, economic individualism might be moving in the opposite direction from public interest theory. Even with public agencies outsourcing tasks to private companies, there may be a reason for society to refocus on public interest theory because private companies have an opportunity to “silence” the public voice and take over the public interest. Bozeman presents the concept of “public” as a way of defining a private company or even a public agency, rather than defining each by its particular economic sector. In Bozeman’s parlance, publicity refers to the degree to which a company or agency is constrained by political authority, while “privacy” refers to the control that market forces have over the agency or private company. As a consequence of recent privatization, New Public Management (NPM) has become an important way of allowing market forces to help manage the public interest. Bozeman points to the history of NPM and how NPM uses many of the practices private companies use to cut costs, such as lean accounting and outsourcing of job functions that would otherwise be wasteful for the parent agency.

Bozeman sets out the approaches to how public interest theory should be studied in the central section of the book. Bozeman calls these approaches normative, process, and consensual. Legislation being the common denominator of variable public interest. The vision of the process is made up of three parts, since it is procedural, aggregate or forms due to the competition between various interests. This last, consensual approach, is the most democratic of all approaches. Interestingly, Bozeman makes it clear that public interest theory can work hand in hand with economic approaches because there are common ground between the two. For example, they both want to maximize value for their shareholders or citizens. However, the ambiguity of public interest theory makes it inferior to the concrete evidence that economic analysis produces.

Bozeman has organized the book to provide the basics of public interest theory, then continues with a discussion between public interest theory and market theory, and finally closes the book with a useful theory he created called the Market Mapping Model. public value (PVM). This model is simply a tool that can be used in conjunction with economic analysis to determine public value. The PVM is in the form of a grid with four quadrants to place different public values. The model reveals four important characteristics of public and private policies. PVM reveals whether these policies are strong or weak in terms of public failure, public success, market failure, and market success. Bozeman beautifully closes Public Values ​​and the Public Interest: Countering Economic Individualism with real-life examples of the application of the controversial and perhaps risky case of genetically modified organisms (GMOs), and in particular, the genetically altered seeds that produce much of of the world’s food supply. . He shows how public concern, and probably corporate concerns, have led to the creation of GURT, also known as the terminator gene. The grid reveals that there is room for improvement for GURT, in terms of being a market failure and a public success.

Public Values ​​and Public Interest: Counterbalancing Economic Individualism is full of important definitions, examples, public interest approaches, public management practices (NGP and public service outsourcing), and even a very useful tool in the PVM model. Bozeman doesn’t appear to be politically biased in either direction; to the contrary, he actually shows throughout the book the value of using market forces to manage the public interest. Obviously, that’s why the subtitle is called Counterweight to Economic Individualism. Bozeman simply implies that economic individualism can be harmful in the pursuit of providing the best benefits for the general public. However, he does not take the position that Economic Individualism is detrimental to our society.

About the author: Billy Best is a graduate student at the University of West Florida. Mr. Best is pursuing a Master’s in Environmental Science. In addition, he has a Bachelor of Science in Finance from the University of Alabama and a Master of Science in Administration with a concentration in Public Administration from the University of West Florida.