Assignment Question
Why have the public sectors of the major economies of the world grown over the past 60 years? Why might governments wish to control this growth and how might they go about controlling it?
Introduction
The purpose of this assignment is to analyze why the public sectors of the major economies have grown over the past 60 years. This assignment will also examine why and how governments might wish to control this growth. According to Wikipedia, the public sector is that part of the economy that provides basic government services. Its composition varies by country, but in most countries the public sector includes services such as the police, military, public roads, public transit, primary education and healthcare for the general public or people within the governments’ jurisdiction. The public sector might provide services that non-tax payer cannot be excluded from (such as street lighting), services which benefit all of society rather than just the individual who uses the service (such as public education), and services that encourage equal opportunity (such as town planning).
Since the turn of the century, many major economies' public sectors have grown tremendously. Countries which had considerably smaller public sectors in the 1950s now have large public sectors(this sentence is not clear, what are you trying to say?). International Monitory Fund (IMF) data shows that in 1870 the average relative size of the public sector around the world, as measured by the ratio of government spending to GDP, was 10.7%. This increased to 19.6% in 1920; 28% in 1960; 41.9% in 1980 and 45% in 1996 (Tanzi and Schuknecht 2000). (University of Leicester, P. 28). In view of the above trends, the first part of this essay will analyz...
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... privatization to cut down on its spending and public sector. Although tax payers continuously complain of high taxes and demand for a reduction in the public sector, it doesn’t however mean the demand for public services is declining. Government should therefore adopt measures and make fundamental reforms in the public sector.
References
(http://economics.about.com/od/howtheuseconomyworks/a/gov_growth.htm),
Impact of the Wars in
Iraq and Afghanistan on the US Military’s Plans,
Programs and Budgets
By By Todd Harrison
http://www.adbi.org/working-paper/2011/05/13/4531.financial.instruments.ppp.infrastructural.dev.eu/illustrative.examples.of.ppp.in.the.eu/ also in Appropriate Financial Instruments for Public-Private Partnership to
Boost Cross-Border Infrastructural
Development-EU Experience - Willem van der Geest and
Jorge Nunez-Ferrer
No. 281
May 2011
Municipal control or an alternative delivery method? This is the question that has intrigued all levels of local government and created intense debates between taxpayers across municipalities. The services that municipalities provide are often vital to the existence of a local area. The issues of accountability, cost savings, quality of service and democracy often arise when choosing the best options to deliver services to a municipal area. In recent years the concepts of privatization, alternative service delivery and public-private partnerships are often promoted as ways cut down on overburdened annual city budgets and promote a higher quality of service to citizens. Municipalities have historically always provided basic services such as fire protection, water purification/treatment and recreational facilities. However, would private companies or another municipality be able to better deliver the same services more efficiently or at a lower cost? The city or town often provides a political grass roots approach to most local problems. Municipalities are better positioned and have a wider scope to provide services to their constituents in order to ensure quality of service that does not erode accountability and transparency, or drive the municipality deeper into debt.
The private sector is composed of organisations that are privately owned and are not part of the government, corporations and partnerships, for example: retail shops and local business. The private sector progresses expeditious because it promotes quality to win over customers, which will lead to a greater chance of them achieving the objective of making profit. Whereas the public sector is composed of companies, that are controlled and maintained by the government. There are homogeneous attributes between the public and private sector, yet they are to a great extent exceeded by the number of differences and this essay will discuss the major differences between these sectors, which are: transparency, customer feedback, basis of
Privatization of governmental functions has a direct relationship with the number of contract employees in government and an inverse relationship with the number of civil servants. As privatization has become more acceptable, contract employees are being hired to do the jobs, thus, replacing civil servants.
There is no individual owner in the Public Sector. Advantages: · Their main aim is to provide a service, not to make a profit · They will still run even if there is few people using the service · Government is in a good position to plan the overall provision for the country Disadvantages: · It is difficult to motivate employees in an impersonal business such as this · The tax payer has to meet higher tax payments if the business makes a loss · The running of the business can be politically influenced. Private Sector These are businesses owned and run by private people. To start a business in the Private Sector, they have to raise their own capital in order to pay for rent, stock, machinery etc. Some of these businesses can be small and owned and run by one person, other businesses can be larger and run by a group of people.
The government has grown roughly the exact same amount as the economy in the last century. One of the most important questions that public choice theory has attempted to solve is, why has the government grown? In our textbook this is discussed in great detail, breaking this question down into four possible theories. The first being that the government’s growth is due to a change in economic environment, such that people want more goods and services from the government, and the second being the expansion redistribution forces redistribute income from low income households to high income households. The third theory states that the declining cost of collecting taxes has allowed governments to tax portions of the economy that it couldn’t in the past, and finally the pressure groups that persuade the government to spend money in their
...r pillars of public administration are equally important in the process of public administration and complement one another in the provision of quality public service. When public administrators have economy in mind they focus on the best combination of available resources to provide optimum public service. To ensure that public service is not limited to only a section of the public, the issue of equity is taken into consideration so that public interest is realized. Efficiency and effectiveness additionally go hand in hand in ensuring that allocated resources are used in the best possible manner to attain set goals. Thus whereas the first three public administration pillars – Economy, efficiency and effectiveness are concerned with how public service is provided the fourth and most recent addition (Equity) concerns with for whom public service is provided.
The primary purposes of the governmental budget are to legitimize public expenditures and to account for and control the usage of public resources. As budgets evolve, officials find that the annual budget should be used for planning, coordinating, and scheduling programs. Demands on municipalities force them to engage in establishing priorities and monitoring how well the priorities are achieved. It is no longer possible for a municipal government to do everything for everyone. A municipal government must prioritize the services that are mandatory, urgent, and that are done well. Resources must be aligned with strategies and citizen’s needs by allocating them over some time frame; usually twelve months – a fiscal year.
Stiglitz, Joseph. Economics of the Public Sector, 3rd edition. New York: Norton & Co., 2000.Print
Ohemeng, Frank, L.K. and Leone, Robert P. “Should Public Sector be RUN like a Business.” Approaching Public Administration. Edmond Montgomery Publications Limited, (2011), P. 1-362.
This essay discusses the radical transformation of the principles and foundations of public administration from traditional to New Public Management. Firstly the essay will attempt to define the key terms of traditional public administration and the doctrine of New Public Management. Rabin J. (2003) explains that New Public Management embodies “a process in public administration that uses information and experiences obtained in business management and other disciplines to improve efficiency, usefulness and general operation of public services in contemporary bureaucracies.“Traditional Public Administration progresses from governmental contributions, with services perceived by the bureaucracy.
Politics-Administration Dichotomy essentially has a two part meaning; there are two functions of government for this idea, as the name implies politics, and administration. The argument about the dichotomy between politics and public administration has been around for several years with no overall consensus on why they should be distinct from one another. Looking critically at both sides of the idea, there are ways to demonstrate an accurate presentation of the administrative agencies working and there are also ways they have proved to be inaccurate. There are just as many downfalls to a politicized bureaucracy. There will be more benefits to the politics-administration dichotomy view with the concept put in place by Woodrow Wilson. He simply promotes a clear distinction between politics and administration and supports the idea that they are interdependent of one another, and they require one another for the appropriate balance between democracy and efficiency. The idea of Wilson’s concept will allow agencies to gain the most efficiency through interdependence of politics-administration.
Public sector reforms adopted in a number of countries such as USA, UK and New Zealand in the last fifteen years and characterised by efficiency units, performance management, contracting out, market type mechanisms, and agency status have come to be known as the New Public Management or NPM. Appearance of the NPM as shifting the paradigm from the old traditional model of administration has been promoted by a remarkable degree of consensus among the political leadership of various countries and is presented today as the major tool for public sector management reforms.
The national budget is the main instrument through which governments collect resources from the economy, in a sufficient and appropriate manner; and allocate and use those resources responsively, efficiently and effectively (Todorovic & Djordjevic, 2009). The work of public budget has increased extremely more complicated, abstruse and worrying (Hou, 2006, p.730).
1. The purpose of this response is to assert the active role of public managers in policy making. By using their technical, analytical and managerial skills public managers can be effective in the policy process and just in implementation.
Public policy can be defined as “What ever governments choose to do or not do” (Dye, 2008, p 2). In the context of this essay, public policies are a set of actors by the government in order to reach out to the masses. The ministries and departments are mandated to deliver specific mandates in the form of public goods and services.