Natural Resources Administration and the Public Interest

SIBILITY or clientele, government administrators usually claim that their decisions are in the public interest. This vague concept is often associated with assumed public benefits or needs. But like any other concept, the public interest is subject to opinions, which are based on desires of individuals. Supposedly, public opinion is reflected into the public interest on governmental decisions. But this usually occurs in subjective interpretations of administrators operating through broad legal frameworks. Moreover, public opinion is seldom fully expressed or understood as a determining influence in a given time period. Granted the impact of a vague public opinion and given agency ideology for survival and expansion, there still remains the question of how governmental decisions can best be made for the idealized public interest. Livingston and Thompson state that the central problem of bureaucracy is responsibility to the public interest through the political process of democratic decision making. Yet they note that bureaucracies frequently rely on brokerage politics to solve problems.' By brokerage politics, they mean the process of resolving conflicts in democracy without reference to responsibility through the consent of the governed by elected officials. This process involves bargaining, com

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• Professional values and accountability in government

  Bruce W Davis•Politics•1980

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• Public-Sector Decision Structures

  T D Clark, William A Shrode•Public Administration Review•1979

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