Product Code Database
A public service or service of general (economic) interest is any service intended to address the needs of aggregate members of a community, whether provided directly by a public sector agency, via public financing available to private businesses or voluntary organisations, or by private businesses subject to government regulation. Some public services are provided on behalf of a government's residents or in the public interest of its citizens. The term is associated with a social consensus (usually expressed through democratic ) that certain services should be available to all, regardless of income, physical ability or intelligence. Examples of such services include the Fire department, police, air force, and public service broadcasting.
Even where public services are neither publicly provided nor Public finance, they are usually subject to regulation beyond that applying to most Economic sector for social and political reasons. Public policy, when made in the public's interest and with its motivations, is a type of public service.
In developing countries, public services tend to be much less well developed. For example, water services might only be available to the middle class. For political reasons, the service is often Subsidy, which reduces the finance potentially available for expansion to poorer communities. The United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 5 is a global initiative that aims to influence the provision of public services and infrastructure to marginalized demographics.
Maintaining order through local delegated authority originated at least as early as the Warring States period (5th to 3rd centuries BCE) in ancient China with the institution of xiàn (prefectures) under the control of a centrally appointed prefect. Historical evidence of state provision of dispute resolution through a legal/justice system goes back at least as far as ancient Egypt.
A primary public service in ancient history involved ensuring the general favor of the Deity through a theologically and ceremonially correct state religion.
The widespread provision of public utility as public services in developed countries began in the late 19th century, often with the Municipality development of Coal gas and water services. Later, governments began to provide other services such as electricity and health care. In most developed countries, local or national governments continue to provide such services, the biggest exceptions being the United States and the United Kingdom, where private provision is arguably proportionally more significant. Nonetheless, such privately provided public services are often strongly regulated, for example (in the US) by Public Utility Commissions.
Examples noted in a history of public services in Oxford include street repair, cleansing, and streetlighting, drainage and sewage disposal, water, gas and electricity supply, police and fire services, the Post Office, transport, hospital services, and the provision of public bathing, parks and cemeteries.Eleanor Chance, Christina Colvin, Janet Cooper, C J Day, T G Hassall, Mary Jessup and Nesta Selwyn, 'Public Services', in A History of the County of Oxford: Volume 4, the City of Oxford, ed. Alan Crossley and C R Elrington (London, 1979), pp. 350–364, accessed 5 May 2022
In the 21st century, debt crisis have made it difficult for developing countries to maintain and develop public services. The US Treasury has urged multilateral global lenders such as the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, and regional development banks to help protect public services in debt-distressed countries.Finnerty, M., Jubilee 2025: The new global debt crisis and its solutions, CAFOD, p. 4, published in December 2024, accessed on 2 July 2025
They may involve outputs that are hard to attribute to specific individual effort or to measure in terms of key characteristics such as quality. They often require high levels of training and education. They may attract people with a public service ethos who wish to give something to the wider public or community through their work.
In the UK, the process of assessing the needs of the people of an area and then designing and securing an appropriate public service to meet those needs, is often called commissioning.Cabinet Office, Office of the Third Sector (2006), Partnership in Public Services: An action plan for third sector involvement, published December 2006, accessed 17 February 2021 Commissioned services may be delivered by organisations in the public sector, private sector or Voluntary sector:Cabinet Office, Modernising Commissioning: Increasing the role of charities, social enterprises, mutuals and cooperatives in public service delivery, page 7, published 2010, accessed 17 February 2021 when the private or third sector is involved, the process of commissioning is usually linked with a process of procurement, to determine who will provide the services, at what cost and on what terms. Commissioning is often seen as a cyclical process.
The journalist David Boyle conducted an independent review for the UK's HM Treasury and the Cabinet Office on public demand for choice in public services, which reported in 2013.Cabinet Office, Barriers to choice - a review of public services and the government's response, published on 24 January 2013, accessed on 19 August 2024 The principle of choice where possible was embodied in the Choice Charter, published on 16 May 2013, where four choice principles were outlined:
A regulated corporation can also acquire permits on the agreement that they fulfill certain public service duties. When a private corporation runs a natural monopoly, the corporation is typically heavily regulated, to prevent abuse of monopoly power. Lastly, the government can buy a service on the free market. In many countries, medication is provided in this manner: the government reimburses part of the medication's price. Bus traffic, electricity, healthcare and waste management are also privatized in this way. One recent innovation, used in the UK increasingly as well as in Australia and Canada, is public-private partnerships, which involve giving a long lease to private consortia in return for partly or fully funding infrastructure costs.
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