Many public policies seek to promote, maintain, modify or improve collective actions. The development of a country requires actions that are complex and wide in scope. This and following texts sort out: i) two general classes of problem-situations that lack collective action; and ii) kinds of...

The problem of coordination concerns how to make actions or choices of social agents (individuals or organizations) match in the right way. Some problems of coordination are also problems of separation. In many cases of lack of coordination, communication is faulty or not very reliable....

Problems of collective action are at the roots of several public policies and, as shown in this text, there are many mechanisms and tools to be used in order to solve those problems. Although three groups of mechanisms and tools have not been stressed in the usual debates of public policy, they...

Millions of South Africans in thousands of demonstrations have protested the unequal allocation of public services. Despite the African National Congress's promise to reduce the disparities generated by apartheid, the level of public services remains highly uneven across the country. Most...

This paper studies the role of governments and its link to trust. We argue that the public's trust strongly depends on governments delivering on their core tasks in a market economy. In some economies, a neglect of core tasks can be observed and there seems to be some erosion, notably in terms...

Es wird vorgeschlagen, die individuellen Steuerzahler jeweils entscheiden zu lassen, wofür die von ihnen gezahlten Steuern verwendet werden sollen, z. B. durch Zuweisung an einzelne Haushaltstitel oder größere Positionen im Staatshaushalt. Außerdem sollen die Steuerzahler wählen dürfen,...

Steht die als frei und unabhängig angenommene Kunst und Kulturarbeit im Widerspruch zu ihrer bürokratisch und an Sachzwängen orientierten Finanzierung? Das Diskussionspapier prüft diese These auf der Grundlage von anonymisierten Gruppengesprächen mit den Akteur:innen aus zwei Kunstvereinen....

The novel part of this paper is a model of the principle of proportionality, as the cornerstone of the doctrine of fundamental rights. German law, and with some modifications also the law of the European Community and the European Convention on Human Rights, do not categorically outlaw...