Public service

For other uses, see Public service (disambiguation).
Not to be confused with Civil service.
Roman public bath, still in use

Public service[1] is a service which is provided by government to people living within its jurisdiction, either directly (through the public sector) or by financing provision of services. The term is associated with a social consensus (usually expressed through democratic elections) that certain services should be available to all, regardless of income, physical ability and/or mental acuity. Even where public services are neither publicly provided nor publicly financed, for social and political reasons they are usually subject to regulation going beyond that applying to most economic sectors. Public policy[2] when made in the public's interest and motivations can provide public services. Public service is also a course that can be studied at a college and/or university. Examples of public services are the fire brigade, police, air force, and paramedics.

Sectors

Public services may be associated with fundamental human rights (such as the right to water). The Volunteer Fire Dept. and Ambulance Corps. are institutions with the mission of servicing the community. A service is helping others with a specific need or want. Here, service ranges from a doctor curing an illness, to a repair person, to a food pantry.

In modern developed countries, the term "public services" (or "services of general interest") often includes:

Public administration

Main article: Public Administration

In modern democracies, public service is often performed by employees known as civil servants who are hired by elected officials. Government agencies are not profit-oriented and their employees are motivated differently.[3] Studies of their work have found contrasting results including both higher levels of effort[3] and fewer hours of work.[4] A survey in the UK found that private sector hiring managers do not credit government experience as much as private sector experience.[5] Public workers tend to make less in wages when adjusting for education, although that difference is reduced when benefits and hours are included.[6] Public workers have other intangible benefits such as increased job security.[6]

Characteristics

A public service may sometimes have the characteristics of a public good (being non-rivalrous and non-excludable), but most are services which may (according to prevailing social norms) be under-provided by the market. In most cases public services are services, i.e. they do not involve manufacturing of goods. They may be provided by local or national monopolies, especially in sectors which are natural monopolies.

They may involve outputs that are hard to attribute to specific individual effort and/or hard to measure in terms of key characteristics such as quality. They often require high levels of training and education. They may attract people with a public service ethos who wish to give something to the wider public or community through their work.

History

Historically, the widespread provision of public services in developed countries usually began in the late nineteenth century, often with the municipal development of gas and water services. Later, governments began to provide other services such as electricity and healthcare. In most developed countries such services are still provided by local or national government, the biggest exceptions being the U.S. and the UK, where private provision is more significant.

Nonetheless, such privately provided public services are often strongly regulated, for example (in the US) by Public Utility Commissions.

In developing countries public services tend to be much less well developed. For example, water services might only be available to the wealthy middle class. For political reasons the service is often subsidized, which reduces the finance available for expansion to poorer communities.

Nationalization

Main article: Nationalization

Nationalization took off following the World Wars of the first half of the twentieth century. Across Europe, because of the extreme demands on industries and the economy, central planning was required to make production maximally efficient. Many public services, especially electricity, gas and public transport are products of this era. Following the Second World War, many countries also began to implement universal health care and expanded education under the funding and guidance of the state.

Privatization

A group of Chilean 'Damas de Rojo', volunteers on their local hospital.
Main article: Privatization

There are several ways to privatize public services. A free-market corporation may be established and sold to private investors, relinquishing government control altogether. Thus it becomes a private (not public) service. Another option, used in the Nordic countries, is to establish a corporation, but keep ownership or voting power essentially in the hands of the government. For example, the Finnish state owned 49% of Kemira until 2007, the rest being owned by private investors. A 49% share did not make it a "government enterprise", but it meant that all other investors together would have to oppose the state's opinion in order to overturn the state's decisions in the shareholder's meeting. Regulated corporation can also acquire permits on the agreement that they fulfill certain public service duties. When a private corporation runs a natural monopoly, then the corporation is typically heavily regulated, to prevent abuse of monopoly power. Lastly, the government can buy the service on the free market. In many countries, medication is provided in this manner: the government reimburses part of the price of the medication. Also, bus traffic, electricity, healthcare and waste management are privatized in this way. One recent innovation, used in the UK increasingly as well as Australia and Canada is public-private partnerships. This involves giving a long lease to private consortia in return for partly funding infrastructure.

See also

References

  1. ↑ McGregor,Eugene B.,,Jr, Campbell, A. K., Macy,John W.,,Jr, & Cleveland, H. (1982). Symposium: The public service as institution. Public Administration Review, 42(4), 304. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/197199863
  2. ↑ Anderfuhren-Biget, S., Varone, F., & Giauque, D. (2014). POLICY ENVIRONMENT AND PUBLIC SERVICE MOTIVATION. Public Administration, 92(4), 807. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1639861884
  3. 1 2 Frank, Sue A.; Lewis, Gregory B. (2004-03-01). "Government Employees Working Hard or Hardly Working?". The American Review of Public Administration. 34 (1): 36–51. doi:10.1177/0275074003258823. ISSN 0275-0740.
  4. ↑ "Government Employees Work Less than Private-Sector Employees". The Heritage Foundation. Retrieved 2016-01-16.
  5. ↑ "Public sector stigma: The 100,000 workers Tim Hudak removes from the provincial payroll could have a tough transition to the private sector". Financial Post. Retrieved 2016-01-16.
  6. 1 2 Volokh, Sasha (2014-02-07). "Are public-sector employees "overpaid"?". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2016-01-18.
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