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Material Type: Assignment; Class: PUBLIC ADM & ORG THEORY; Subject: Public Administration; University: University of Louisville; Term: Unknown 1989;
Typology: Assignments
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when is government involvement justified?
A social contract is a voluntary agreement in which a group of people choose to give up certain freedoms in return for certain functions provided by government.
The state of nature is a hypothetical situation that existed prior to government, in which humans existed in a wild state. Philosophers ask, “what made people give up the freedom of the state of nature in order to live under government?” People may be willing to give up a measure of freedom in exchange for certain limited services from government.
Thomas Hobbes (1651) Leviathan John Locke (1690) Two Treatises of Government Hobbes viewed the power of government over people as unlimited. For Locke, sovereignty rested with people. There are two implications he derived from this proposition:
Use private markets unless there is some overriding reason not to, in this case, market failure.
Gathering information, negotiating, and monitoring contracts
e.g. in labor markets, we don’t contract with firms for each discrete activity we will perform or write new contracts for each week. Instead we submit to the rules and hierarchy of long term general contracts with organizations.
By being the sole provider, the monopolist is able to restrict output and thereby drive up the price. The monopolist can also provide poorer quality goods and services, due to lack of competition.
The quality of many government services also suffers without the discipline provided by markets. For this reason, introducing competition into government service is often a great reform strategy.
The most challenging of these is the “natural monopoly,” because there is no one obvious solution. The alternatives include
The natural monopoly is where capital investment costs are so high, the firm needs all of the customers in an area to pay them off.
Consider food grown with chemical fertilizers and pesticides. These chemicals flow off and pollute streams and drinking water. This environmental cost is not included in the cost of a bag of apples or tomatoes. One solution
Political realities
Lobbies representing traditional (i.e. polluting) farmers; Lobbies representing the companies making chemical agricultural products ; Big money that flows into congressional campaigns from these sources.
Appurtenances means something that belongs with another more important thing, as in an accessory
By having the government run the prisons, it symbolizes our collective dislike of lawbreaking.
Setting policy Dispensing justice
What are the advantages and disadvantages of delivering public goods through
When is public delivery of a good most likely to be preferable? When is private delivery of a good most likely to be preferable?
Executive Branch Congress Bureaus Subcommittees Private sector (individuals, corporations, interest groups)
administrative bureaus, legislative committees, and the private sector (individuals, interest groups, & corporations)
e.g. Senators from Kentucky and North Carolina will obtain committee assignments relevant to tobacco regulation This practice leads to increased contact with interest groups and administrators involved in this area.
They are not a permanent stable structure, but something which becomes mobilized when a policy is being developed and approved Those in the network are consulted by public officials because of their specialized expertise. To develop an energy policy, an administrator might consult with
Involvement of all of these knowledgeable stakeholders provides are more comprehensive understanding of the policy issue.
If you are committed to a life of government service, then you should have a good understanding of government’s role in society. Such understanding is important in this era when few people have this knowledge and there is widespread anti-government sentiment.
