The competitive advantage of the public sector

The starting point for any discussion about the competitive positioning of the public service should be a clear understanding of the role of government. I do not mean the underlying political, indeed economic, arguments for the range of interventions that any government might undertake, rather I mean the chosen role. And, within this context, I distinguish the role of the public service from the role of the elected officials within ‘government’. I acknowledge that the decisions about choice of government activities clearly lie in the hands of the elected officials, as does the role that the government chooses to play