Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Thomas R. Dye
What governments do, why they do it and what differences it makes.
Harold Laswell
Projected program of goals, values and practices
David Easton
The impacts of government activity
Austin Ranney
A selected list of action or a declaration of intent
James Anderson
A purposive course of action followed by an actor or set of actors in dealing with a problem or
matter of concern; An attempt to define and structure a rational basis for action or inaction
Ten uses of the term ‘policy’
maintenance of public health, public hygiene and sanitation prevention of infectious diseases
sewage disposal, etc.
medical services
construction and maintenance of social infrastructure
management of production and distribution of staple food, including irrigation
water supply (especially in urban area)
provision of public utility services, energy supply, transportation (mass transit),
telecommunications, etc.
development of industry and economy
livelihood assistance and other social welfare services
education, science and technology (basic science or large scale project)
employment services
public housing
pollution control
environment conservation, including the protection of endangered species
EXHAUSTIVE. But a good measure is Government Budget.
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Roles and Responsibilities and Functions of Government:
-public organizations
government (national, sub-national, local organizations
policy making organizations
regulatory organizations
service delivery organizations
research organizations
financial organizations
production or manufacturing organizations
-supra-national, international organizations, etc.
-non-governmental public organizations
-private organizations (non-profit and for-profit organizations)
-individuals
Reasoning and Justification of Government Involvement and Intervention
Economics (Paul Samuelson, etc.)
“Private consumption goods”, “collective consumption goods” as goods “which all enjoy in common
in the sense that each individual’s consumption of such good leads to no subtraction from any other
individual’s consumption of that good.”
In today’s economics, goods and services are classified by “excludability” and “rivalry” of goods and
services. (Nature of these goods may change as a result of technological progress or other changes.)
Easy to exclude someone who doesn’t pay Difficult to exclude someone who doesn’t pay
Individually generally has a choice as to kind and Individual generally has little or no choice as to kind
quality of goods and quality of goods
Payment of goods is closely related to demand Payment for goods is not closely related to demand
and consumption or consumption
Allocation decisions are made primarily by Allocation decisions are made primarily by political
market mechanism process
Self-organized governance system for managing common pool natural resources (limited
resources)
Design principles for stable local common pool resource management
1. Clearly defined boundaries
2. Rules regarding the appropriation and provision of common resources that are adapted
to local conditions
3. Collective-choice arrangements that allow ,most resource appropriators to participate in
the decision-making process
4. Effective monitoring by monitors who are part of or accountable to the appropriators
5. A scale of graduated sanctions for resource appropriator who violate community rules
6. Mechanisms of conflict resolution that are cheap and of easy access
7. Self-determination of the community recognized by higher-level authority
8. In the case of larger common-pool resources, organization in the form of multiple layers
of nested enterprise, with small local common pool resources at the base level.
Public Law
“public authority”:
authority with coercive power
supported by enforcing authority and sanctions against the violation of rules or specific
order or decisions of the government
(Usually it is necessary to have a specific statutory basis for public authority with binding power.)
Politics, Political Science, Public Administration
Government may make a public policy irrespective of economic theory but try to justify as a politically
justifiable decisions.
“Some argue that only goods or services that cannot be provided by markets should be provided by
governments. Others contend, however, that as government is the embodiment of the will of the
people expressed through the political process, there should be no limits to its scope.” (Owen Hughes,
Public Management and Administration p.21)