"Drawing on the concepts of the common good advocated by Aristotle, Saint Thomas Aquinas, John Locke, and John Dewey, Public Values and Public Interest offers a direct theoretical challenge to the "utility of economic individualism," the prevailing political theory in the western world. In constructing the case for adopting a new governmental paradigm based on what he terms "managing publicness," Bozeman demonstrates why economic indices alone fail to adequately value social choice in many cases. He explores the broad implications of privatization of a wide array of governmental services - among them Social Security, defense, prisons, and water supplies."--BOOK JACKET.

The privatization of public value -- Economic individualism and the "publicness" of policies : cases and controversies -- Economic individualism in public policy -- Economic individualism in public management -- Public interest theory and its problems -- Toward a pragmatic public interest theory -- Values, value theory, and collective action -- Public values -- Public value mapping : the case of genetically modified foods and the "terminator gene" -- Managing publicness.