What Is ‘Public Interest’?: A Case Study

Kevin Morrell
Additional contact information
Kevin Morrell: University of Warwick

Chapter 11 in Organization, Society and Politics, 2012, pp 162-181 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract As the chapter on the public good argues (and using the terms synonymously), ‘public interest’ is a central concept in public administration. In an important and basic sense, we understand effective governance as that which contributes to the public interest. Key features of civil society that protect the public interest can be taken for granted in established democracies. However, in many contexts we cannot assume a tradition of citizenship, or stable government, or rule of law, or basic infrastructure. Examining what is in the public interest in developing countries can be useful to identify these taken-for-granted assumptions, and to re-examine this ubiquitous and enduring concept. This chapter does this through a case study of land rights reform in post-conflict Nicaragua which draws together themes from organization, society and politics.

Keywords: Public Good; Civil Society; Public Interest; United Nations; Good Governance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:palchp:978-1-137-02688-0_12

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.palgrave.com/9781137026880

DOI: 10.1057/9781137026880_12

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Palgrave Macmillan Books from Palgrave Macmillan
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().