ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the history of debate about the role and size of government. To get a balanced sense of the size of government, there are three primary metrics that one must examine: the size of the workforce, the size of the budget, and the size of the debt. In the ideal, Keynesian economics promotes a strong and large capitalist private sector with a moderately sized government to provide a variety of ongoing national, local, and individual functions such as defense, education, and transportation. Both private sector companies and government agencies are types of organizations. Both sectors have tremendous variety, and it is useful to take a moment to review some of the basic differences in the public sector when discussing business-government relations. In terms of structure, the Constitutional democracy gives coequal status to the federal government and state governments, dividing power and the various types of responsibilities.
