The Public (Government) Sector

Unlike, say, an automobile or a home in which an individual or household exclusively owns it and exclusively enjoys the resultant benefits of ownership, a levee system is one of those types of products that impacts and benefits everyone in the community. Nobody in the community is excluded from experiencing the benefits of a levee system. A levee system exists to protect the entire community; it does not exist to confer benefits to any one particular individual or household while excluding all others. A community-wide or nation-wide product that benefits all and excludes none makes it an ideal candidate for classification as a collective or public product. Public products fall within the purview of government provision and oversight.

It should be noted that the government does not necessarily have to provide the product directly (such as a levee system); the government simply can provide the funding to the private sector to provide the product. After all, private sector businesses constructed the Hoover Dam. To use another example of contracting, with funding received from the government, private sector businesses also produce all kinds of military weaponry.

Hoover Dam

The Political and Legal Business of Government

There are several levels of government, for instance the federal, state, regional, county, and city or local levels. Typically, the government sector is subdivided into three branches—executive, legislative, and judicial. Each of these branches has corresponding bureaucratic arms. The legislative branch makes the laws. The executive branch enforces the laws. The judicial branch interprets the laws when disputes arise in society.

In most cases and at all levels of government (such as is the case in most democracies), a government gains and retains its power and authority to govern based on popular consent as expressed through periodic citizenry elections. This electoral form of government representation is known as a representative democracy.

When free and open elections are held, normally, the majority vote getters win the right to hold various positions or offices in the government. The will of the voters is supposed to be preeminent throughout government; however, in reality, sometimes it is the will of the wealthy that prevails. The role of money in election makes it possible for the wealthy to co-opt government officials and, thus, to co-opt the decision-making process in the interest of the wealthy. Elections represent the ultimate check on government officials. When candidates for elective offices win at the voting polls, then they earn a mandate to make decisions and establish policies. When incumbents are defeated, then it paves the way for new leadership to occur. Electoral defeat makes it possible for new approaches to governing to emerge.

Government is heavily and inextricably entangled in politics. The reason is because elected politicians primarily are responsible for running the government. Public policy begins at the partisan, elective levels of government, namely, as campaign promises. Public policy emanates from the law-making and budgeting processes overseen by elected officials. Most department heads who run the government are appointed to office by partisan politicians.

In the USA, politicians, in turn, are guided by money. Running for political office in the USA can be an expensive proposition (especially when it comes to nationwide-level and statewide-level political campaigns). Those politicians who can raise the most money from donors are far better positioned to spread their political messages far and wide in society.

In a certain sense, effective political campaigning can be likened to the effective marketing of a product. Absent scant free news coverage, if a political candidate does not have the money to purchase yard signs and mailers, and if a political candidate does not have the money to constantly purchase advertising spots on television, radio, print media, and online media to maintain a public presence and promote a public awareness, then the voting citizenry would hardly know that the candidate exists. Usually, when you go grocery shopping at the supermarket, you pick certain products from the shelves, say, a certain brand of toothpaste, box of laundry detergent, or bar of soap, because repeated television advertisements of those particular products have made you keenly aware of the particulars (that is, benefits and features) about those products. You most likely would not pick a product that you know nothing about or that you have heard little to nothing about no matter how good is the unknown product. Ads work; they move products off the store shelves.

Similarly, money in politics works. Through an ability to purchase advertisements, hire support staff, and sponsor political rallies, money enhances a candidate's public profile, and concomitantly, money enhances the candidate's chances of being elected to public office. The word-of-mouth approach to politics is not an ideal approach to victory where money reigns supreme. The word-of-mouth approach to politics usually is not an effective winning strategy.

The problem with money in politics is that those big-money contributors to campaigns or those donors with the most money to contribute to political campaigns tend to be ones whose interests will take priority over the government's agenda. The end result is that not only will some potential great candidates get overlooked due to a lack of money to advertise themselves but also sometimes government policies are co-opted to serve the interests of big donors instead of the interests of ordinary citizens. The role of money in politics can have a corrosive impact on good governance.

The following organizational charts represent high-level views of how the public sector is organizationally structured.

National Level of Government (USA Example):

State Level of Government (State of Tennessee - USA Example)

State Level - Executive Branch of Government:

State Level - Legislative Branch of Government:

State Level - Judicial Branch of Government:

City Level of Government (La Vergne, Tennessee - USA Example):

The Performance and Technological Management Aspect of Government

When it comes to performance measurement throughout the governmental bureaucracy at all governmental levels, the problem with government policy is that policy objectives often are stated in vague terms. Take, education, for instance. Education has been deemed as being a collective or public good. There is a general consensus among societal members that every child should receive a good education. At a minimum, universal education for all children means that all children should attend school. Universal education for all children means that all children should learn how to read, write, and perform basic arithmetic (also known as the 3 R's) in a proficient manner, hence, the existence of public schools. Similarly, there is a general consensus among societal members that every citizen should have access to knowledge, hence, the existence of public libraries.

The goal of providing a good education to all children sounds fantastic, but a little probing reveals that the provision of quality, impactful education turns out to be easier said than done. One reason is because members of society often come from different socioeconomic, racial, religious, and subcultural backgrounds. Another reason why it remains a challenge to provide a good education to all children is the fact that no two individuals are the same; some are stronger in certain educational pursuits and weaker in others. A third reason is societal change or the changing times: Given the advent of the Internet and microcomputers, there is a general recognition that maybe schools should incorporate more STEM-related (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) topics into the curriculum. The idea would be to give students the knowledge and critical thinking required for them to become competent in new fields of study such as software programming, big-data manipulation, machine learning, artificial intelligence, gene therapy, robotics, and so forth.

How, then, is educational performance to be measured? How is educational success to be determined? Which is the best educational approach or policy for fostering student engagement and achieving a high level of learning comprehension? The next three graphics explore some attempts to better gauge the educational performance and achievements of students.

Example of a School Education Policy:

Successfully running a public sector institution is as challenging as is successfully running, say, a private-sector business or a social-sector foundation. The basic management goal is the same for the three sectors, that is, the (1) private, (2) social, and (3) government sectors. The basic management goal is to most efficiently run the operation while realizing the highest quality and quantity of output. The difference between the three sectors rests with the tools they use to measure success. For instance, the private sector utilizes tools to measure the goal of maximizing profits. The social sector utilizes tools to measure the goal of mission-statement accomplishment. Public sector institutions, in contrast, utilize tools to measure product selection and delivery success.

To illustrate how a governmental agency might make a decision, for illustrative purposes, the following graphic is a hypothetical representation of the cost-benefit analysis tools sometimes used in government to make decisions. It analyzes a hypothetical project to expand commuter train service from the San Francisco Bay Area (California, USA) to the Sacramento area. The graphic indicates that, after weighing all of the costs and benefits, this particular expansion project is deemed worthy of pursuing. The benefits to be gained or realized outweigh the costs.

Some other performance tools used to help those running the government to make informed choices include cost-effectiveness analysis, cost-utility analysis, and decision analysis. Use of these tools is by no means universal or ubiquitous throughout government at all levels. These tools do, however, represent a continual effort by government to achieve greater accountability for the decisions it makes and the money it spends. These tools do represent an ongoing effort by the government to be more strategic and professional in its approach to governing.

A new challenge has emerged in the public sector given the changing times accompanying the arrival of the 21st century. It is the challenge of adopting an ideal information technology (IT) infrastructure to support governmental operations. Increasingly, as is the case with the general business milieu, the public sector has begun migrating to the so-called cloud. Accompanying a migration to the cloud requires selecting a carefully crafted information technology infrastructure, that is, one that comprehensively, simultaneously, and seamlessly incorporates the elements of trust, security, and resource sharing into it. The next graphic represents one cloud offering example.

IT has a backend and a frontend component. The backend of IT is the infrastructure and hardware itself. The frontend of IT is an array of products for users to engage. Some of these products can be classified as public or collective products. For instance, with ongoing public concern and alarm about climate change and global warming, a transition to clean-energy vehicles is viewed as a worthwhile activity to be pursued by the government.

One way in which the USA Department of Energy seeks to incentivize and augment a transition to clean-energy vehicles is to publish a free alternative fuel locator app on the World Wide Web—including for smartphones such as the iPhone and Android devices. The idea behind the Alternative Fueling Station Locator app is to provide an added convenience to those who make the move from the use of fossil fuels in vehicles to driving clean-energy vehicles such as electric cars and trucks. The Alternative Fueling Station Locator app offers drivers of clean-energy vehicles the convenience of quickly locating alternative fueling stations.

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is one of the ways in which the government is embracing and harnessing the new technologies and adapting them to produce public sector services. The Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE)'s Alternative Fueling Station Locator map below represents one such government use of GIS.

The Administrative / Civil Service Business of Government

Civil servants comprise the government's workforce. Civil servants are supposed to be apolitical. Regardless of which political party is in power, civil servants are expected to faithfully execute whatever policy choices have been approved by laws or adopted by leaders.

The organizational charts above provide some hints as to some of the chores that the public sector performs. In the USA alone, some functions and activities of its national government include the following:

1. Levy and collect taxes, duties, and fees
2. Print money
3. Borrow money and issues bonds
4. Establish weights and measures
5. Issue patents and copyrights
6. Control immigration, emigration, and confer citizenship to noncitizens
7. Operate the social security and postal systems
8. Oversee the national transportation network
9. Oversee the national park system
10. Regulate agriculture, food production, workplace safety, environmental protection, and interstate commerce
11. Regulate health, education, and welfare
12. Secure the homeland
13. Negotiate trade and peace deals with other national governments and participate in international organizations
14. Declare war against and make peace and security pacts with other national governments
15. Maintain a military and implement a draft
16. Admit new states to become a part of the USA and oversee its territories and dependencies

Obviously, there are lots of jobs and lots of career opportunities in the public sector. The following links provide some additional information about job and career opportunities within the USA government sector:

Working for the federal government: Part 1

 

Working for the federal government: Part 2

 

USAJOBS - The Federal Government's official employment site

 

USAJOBS Help Center - Federal employees

 

How to get a job in the Federal Government

 

Working in Politics

 

Strengthening the Federal Workforce

 

The United States for State and Local Gov

 

Not only does the government strive to be more strategic and professional in its approach to decision making but also it strives to be more strategic and professional in the area of personnel management. As noted by the USA Office of Personnel Management (OPM), personnel performance management entails incorporating the following 5 components into the work environment:

Because government and politics are intricately intertwined, sometimes politics impinges upon the work of civil servants. The reason is because department heads typically are appointed by partisan politicians. These partisan politicians sometimes would like to achieve certain partisan outcomes. Workflow processes such Total Quality Manager (TQM) are meant to assist civil servants in staying focused on the task of attaining peak performance in their job roles.

In the USA, perhaps the ultimate civil servants are members of the USA Supreme Court. Even members of the USA Supreme Court are not immune to politics. Members of the USA Supreme Court are appointed to office for life by the USA President but must be confirmed by a vote of the USA Senate. The USA President making the appointment to the high court tends to nominate judges who hold somewhat similar judicial philosophies and interpretations of the USA Constitution to his or her own. All too frequently rulings of the high court or votes by the judges on certain cases can be viewed as having a liberal or conservative interpretation to them.

Justice is supposed to be blind, which means courts are expected to render impartial rulings based strictly on laws, evidence, and merits of the case. In reality, those members of society who are famous, powerful, or wealthy also can afford to hire the most skilled lawyers to represent them in court. Time and again, court outcomes have demonstrated that the famous, powerful, or wealthy stands a far better chance of receiving a more favorable court outcome or more lenient treatment than do poorer members of society stand to receive. The reason is because poorer members of society cannot afford to hire the best (hence, most expensive) lawyers to represent them in court. Money talks and money wins.

Cardinal Sin of Government 1 of 2: Waste

The twin, cardinal sins of the public sector are 1. mismanagement/waste and 2. fraud/corruption. Government exists to tackle private-sector market failures and shortcomings. It becomes the purview and duty of government to directly or indirectly provide public or collective products that the private sector finds it unprofitable to provide.

It is apparent that governments have their own challenges, shortcomings, and failures. Not only do these failures and shortcomings manifest themselves in the form of waste and corruption but also in the form of endless partisan bickering and political impasse.

There are countless tales of mismanagement and waste at the national, state, and local levels of government. Mismanagement and waste can come in various forms. Mismanagement and waste can run the gamut from something minute (like a highway to nowhere) to something major (like outsized cost overruns on capital projects such as assembling a new type of fighter jet for the military). The following flipbook takes a look at combating fraud, waste, and abuse at the local governmental level.

Cardinal Sin of Government 2 of 2: Corruption

A pivot towards retrogressive and counterproductive tendencies like corruption in government occurs when individual traits such as greed, ambition, and wielding power take center stage in the government arena. Prevailing traits in government such as greed, ambition, and wielding power have the effect of warping, subverting, compromising or sidetracking the stated policy objectives of government.

It is not too uncommon to read reports in the media about election fraud occurring in different countries around the world. Perhaps one of the most prominent recent examples of government corruption (as of 2022) has to be President Donald Trump's attempts to steal the 2020 USA Presidential election not to mention his instances of self-dealing (that is, steering government business to his private businesses). It seems like there were no limits to which President Donald Trump was willing to go simply to cling to the Presidency.

It started with President Donald Trump pressuring and attempting to corrupt the president of Ukraine. He proceeded to pressure and attempt to corrupt the USA Justice Department into declaring some election results invalid or questionable. He then pressured and attempted to corrupt state government and election officials in four so-called swing states (of Michigan, Pennsylvania, Oregon, and Georgia) to not certify the election results. His sycophants filed bogus lawsuits on his behalf. His sycophants hatched a fake elector scheme on his behalf. Next, he persuaded some loyal members of his political party to object to certifying the election. His supporters in certain radio and television media outlets played along with and elevated his lies about winning the 2020 USA Presidential election. He pressured and attempted to corrupt his Vice President into not certifying the election results. Finally, he seduced his most loyal supporters into storming the Capitol Building to stop the certified and final counting of the Electoral College.

President Donald Trump tried just about every trick in the book to stop the certification of Joe Biden as the winner of the 2020 USA Presidential election. In the process, a great many of President Donald Trump's fans and supporters became ensnared in his web of corruption with the prospect of some of them facing time in jail.

How was it possible for President Donald Trump's corrosive tentacles to reach so deeply into so many areas of USA society? How was it that President Donald Trump was able to perpetrate such a feat? It seems like the primary culprit was the Electoral College system. The Electoral College system was the vehicle that gave President Donald Trump an outlet to indulge in all kinds of corrupt shenanigans. For, had an outright majority vote alone determined the USA Presidency, then a winner of the USA Presidency quite likely would have been declared and the election would have been decided by the next day on November 4, 2020. As for former President Trump's bid to seek re-election to the USA Presidency, as the saying goes, "fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me."

Click here for more information.

President Donald Trump was on the precipice of staging a political coup and quite possibly usurping the USA system of government in the process. Possibly, nothing captures President Donald Trump's corruption any better than the pronouncement made by his advisor Stephen Bannon. Mr. Bannon noted the following about President Donald Trump's unhinged attempt to cling to power (see next video):

Think about it. According to Forbes, as of 2023, President Donald Trump's net worth was placed at approximately $2.5 billion (USD). He flies everywhere he wants to go on his personal jet. Yet, he is constantly soliciting his followers to send him money. With a net worth of $2.5 billion (USD), it seems like President Donald Trump's followers should be the ones soliciting him for money. President Donald Trump's constant solicitations for money would be akin to someone like, say, Jeff Bezos, starting a GoFundMe campaign. President Donald Trump's constant solicitations for money is akin to him stepping off his $100 million (USD) personal jet and saying to his supporters, "Sisters and brothers, can you spare a dollar?" With an estimated net worth of $2.5 billion (USD), one would think that President Donald Trump could finance his own campaigns to become USA President much like Michael Bloomberg used his own money when he sought to win the USA Presidency.

When all is said and done, perhaps historians will write that President Donald Trump's legacy was to inject a new, unprecedented type of incivility, virulence, divisiveness, intolerance, and lawlessness into the American body politics. The message from Donald Trump's political ascension seemed to be this: It is okay to lie, cheat, demagogue, demonize, break the law, and kill [à la the January 6, 2021 Capitol insurrection] your way into wielding power in the government sphere. If history should point to Newt Gingrich as the one USA politician who mostly was responsible for plunging the USA into an era of hyperpartisan politics, then surely history will point to Donald Trump as the one politician who mostly was responsible for plunging the USA into an era of hyperpartisan politics on steroids. However, these kind of uncivil political behaviors are not okay neither in the government sphere nor in the business, nonprofit, and household spheres of society. These kind of uncivil political behaviors tend to lead to societal disharmony and disintegration. Much like the pesky termite gnawing away on solid wood, these kind of uncivil political behaviors gnaw away at the fabric of a cohesive society. (See, also, fakenews.html for an expanded view of the Donald Trump political phenomenon.)

The following flipbook looks at some best practices that governments can adopt to curtail or minimize incidences of corruption and maximize incidences of efficiency.

The Public Sector…Striving for A More Perfect Earth of Tomorrow, or People Make the World Go Round

In instances of private-sector market failures, a role of government is to provide unique collective or public products. In the process, government seeks to improve the lives and living standards of citizens. The business of government is about providing these uniquely collective products in the most effective, efficient, timely, and equitable manners possible.

All three sectors—Private, Social, and Public—operate on the basis of adopting sound and prudent management principles as illustrated by the next graphic. The difference between the three sectors is this: Their different histories, missions, traditions, and idiosyncrasies have led them to adopt different operational approaches. In the case of the public sector, it is all about striving to abide by the principle of "good governance."

Except anarchists, practically all humans desire for Earth to be a more hospitable and prosperous planet on which to live. The role of the public sector is to do its part in contributing to the aim of making Earth a more hospitable and prosperous planet for citizens to enjoy—country by country. The challenge facing humanity, it seems, is the fact that they cannot reach consensus about which approach is the better one for making Earth a more hospitable and prosperous planet on which to live—with nuclear bombs thrown into the mix to have transformed this challenge into a downright ridiculous and at once very, very deadly nuclear conundrum for all living things on planet Earth.

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