ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book aims to identify the innate characteristics that can be used to classify certain goods as public and others as private, and point out the need for collective action with respect to the services called public. It points out that the growth of the federal government has resulted from decisions to provide private services at public expense. The book discusses alternatives to government agencies, and, because 80 percent of all government employees are in state and local government and focuses on municipal services, the highly visible services which citizens observe on a daily basis. Together, the federal, state, and local governments collect revenues which amount to more than a third of the gross national product, and employ almost one out of five nonagricultural civilian workers. A government can provide collective services directly to citizens, via its own agencies and its own employees.
