Bozeman, Barry. (2007). Public values and public interest: countering economic individualism. Georgetown University Press, DC: Beryl A. Radin. Pp. 1 + 186. ISBN 978-1-58901-177-9.
Reviewed by Billy Best, University of West Florida.
Public Values and Public Interest: Countering Economic Individualism is a unique academic masterpiece by Barry Bozeman that provides a deep and compelling understanding of what public values, the public interest, public goods, the public domain comprised, and explains with examples thoughtful. , on ways to manage the public interest with a term he coined “manage advertising.” The argument that Bozeman assembles is that everyone’s voice can and should be heard to determine the public interest. He rightly 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 interpreted as a” public. “This book was written with many real-life analogies to help students and anyone for what they matter, (especially those who represent the public in public administration, and various other political positions) in pursuit of creating public policies that are not overwhelmingly based on economics, but on what Bozeman has called “public values.” affirming that public values 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 the theory of the public interest beginning with the philosophical mind of Aristotle, but does not stop there. Bozeman lists Saint Thomas Aquinas and John Locke as contributions to the theory of the public interest since the first millennium. Furthermore, Bozeman suggests that public interest theory is stagnant, as a course of study, in contemporary times, because economic studies (which are quantitative and behavior-based) fit better with the philosophy of economic individualism. Since most of the world’s economies are based on economic individualism, everyone has the opportunity to accumulate wealth. In short, economic individualism could move in the opposite direction to the public interest theory. Even with public agencies outsourcing functions to private companies, there may be a reason for society to focus again on public interest theory because private companies have the opportunity to “silence” the public voice and take charge of the public interest. Bozeman raises the concept of “advertising” as a way to define a private company or even a public agency, rather than defining each one by its particular economic sector. In Bozeman language, advertising refers to the degree to which a business or agency is restricted by political authority, while “privacy” refers to the control that market forces have over the agency or private business. As a consequence of the 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 the NPM and how the NPM uses many of the practices that private companies use to reduce costs, such as lean accounting and outsourcing of job functions, which would otherwise be uneconomical for the parent agency to maintain.
Bozeman sets out the approaches to how the public interest theory should be studied in the central section of the book. Bozeman calls these approaches normative, process, and consensual. Regulations being the common denominator of the various public interests. The process view is made up of three parts, since it is procedural, aggregate or form due to competition between diverse interests. The last approach, consensual, 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 meeting points between the two. For example, both want to maximize value for their shareholders or citizens. However, the ambiguity of the public interest theory makes it inferior to the concrete evidence produced by economic analysis.
Bozeman has organized the book to give the fundamentals of public interest theory, then he follows with a discussion between public interest theory and market theory, and finally closes the book with a useful theory he created called the Public Value Mapping Model ( 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 features 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 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 the world’s food supply. . It shows how public concern and potential corporate concerns have led to the creation of GURT, also known as the terminator gene. The network reveals that there is room for improvement for GURT, in terms of it being a market failure and a public success.
Public Values and Public Interest: Countering Economic Individualism is full of important definitions, examples, public interest approaches, public management practices (NPM and utility outsourcing), and even a very useful tool in the PVM model. Bozeman does not appear to be politically biased in any direction; rather, it shows throughout the book the value of using market forces to manage the public interest. Obviously, that’s why the subtitle is called The Counterweight of Economic Individualism. Bozeman simply implies that economic individualism can be detrimental in seeking to provide the best benefits for the general public. However, it does not take the position that economic individualism is harmful to our society.
About the author: Billy Best is a graduate student at the University of West Florida. Best is pursuing a Master of Environmental Science. In addition, he has a Bachelor of Science in Finance from the University of Alabama and a Master of Science in Management with a concentration in Public Administration from the University of West Florida.
