ABSTRACT
An excessive shift towards the former brings the activity near a public non-enterprise, while an excessive shift towards the latter brings it near a non-public enterprise. The ‘synthesis’ between the two concepts is preferred to ‘superimposition’ of the ‘public’ concept over the ‘enterprise’ concept, in order to emphasise the idea of achieving a judicious balance between the two concepts. A prefatory observation worth noting is that there is no suggestion in this discussion that the ‘public’ concept ought not to intervene in the manifestation of the ‘enterprise’ concept. That it must is the essence of the concept of public enterprise. The problem may be analysed under: the approach to synthesis; the substance of synthesis; and the sanction for synthesis. The substantive aspect of the synthesis concerns the formulation of the decisions to be applied to an enterprise such that they represent the most appropriate compromise with, or intervention in, the ‘enterprise’ elements.
