Public values: citizens’ perspective

ABSTRACT

Drawing data from more than 2,000 US citizens, the current article focuses on empirically derived citizens’ public values. Objectives include: (1) to provide and analyse empirical data on citizens’ specific views about what does and does not constitute a public value, (2) to distinguish between ‘Contested’ and ‘Consensus’ public values; (3) to suggest some implications of citizens’ public value assessment in terms of their theoretical meaning; (4) to compare expressed vs. enacted public values (based on decision vignettes). Findings show widespread agreement about a handful of putative public values, but when enacted in vignettes responses are inconsistent.

KEYWORDS:

• Public values
• citzens
• governance

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Barry Bozeman

Barry Bozeman is Regents' Professor and Arizona Centennial Professor of Technology Policy and Public Management.  His public management research focuses on public organization theory and public values.