Public Good

The idea of public good is usually correlated with happiness, often with its sociological correlative, quality of life. The socio-political approaches referring to public good as quality of life are used in the construction of public policies; namely, in doing public good. Public policies that could be generated by introducing the value of personal development and updating the individual could be correlated to the affirmative action of supporting the individual in the process of self-actualization. Public good represents a constitutive central value for any administrative practice. Doing public good depends on the meanings this concept takes in different social and temporary contexts. Public good is generally defined as the state of wellbeing of as many citizens as possible, in accordance with their own aspirations and interests. Aggregating the individual’s interest in a concept of public good proves to be difficult; theories of public decision proposed in general the rule of the majority, both for democratic reasons and as a result of the consequentional results. In administrative practice, the concept of public good becomes operational as public interest being regulated in normative terms.