ABSTRACT

This concluding chapter ties together the findings of the book’s earlier discussions and argues that meeting the objectives of the book helps to move the public value dialogue forward. The first of those objectives was to expand public value into new contexts, including developing countries, post-communist societies, bilateral relations, the post-truth era, supranational entities, and illiberal democracies. The second objective was to deploy the lens of budgeting to questions of public value, including the use of citizens budgets, legislative budget offices, budget transparency data, and long-term bilateral economic plans. The third objective was to address public value questions, including the “public” in public value, the struggle of the public manager in hostile environments such as illiberal systems and post-truth societies, the role of the citizen in value creation, and the creation of value beyond international boundaries. This chapter also considers the degree to which public value theory has been advanced, and can further be advanced, using the findings and approaches of the book.