We explain what a public service is and the types that exist. Also, examples of these services and their importance to society.
What is a public service?
The public services are the set of goods and activities, usually of an essential or basic type, that through direct administration, subsidies or other regulatory mechanisms, a State guarantees its population, in order to provide a better level of life and protect equal opportunities among its citizens.
Public services are usually paid for with taxpayers’ money, that is, with public funds (public spending), which is why they are usually limited to those essential for contemporary life.
Said services, then, They are usually protected by the State and are considered an asset of national interest, even when concessions are granted to private companies to administer said service. In some constitutions, they are even declared the inalienable property of the State.
This type of services play an important role in mixed economy modelsIn other words, they control the free market through rules of the game that tend to protect the most disadvantaged, as occurs in social economies or in welfare states. In fact, access to public services it is one of the many factors taken into account when measuring human development indices (HDI).
Sometimes we can speak of semi-public services when it comes to privatized services but that have a certain margin of subsidy or protection from the State. The criterion for the differentiation between the services that must be public and those that must be private often constitutes the debate between the liberal (or neoliberal) positions and the protectionist or developmentalist positions.
Types of public services
In general, public services can be classified into:
- Emergency services. Those who attend to irregular situations in which the life and / or material properties of citizens are in danger.
- Bureaucratic services. Those that have to do with the administration of the State and with the steps that citizens can or should do before it.
- Basic services. Those essential for life in an organized society, and which are often brought directly home.
Examples of public services
Some examples of public services are:
- Emergency services. Citizen security (police), firefighters, military bodies, medical emergencies, rescuers, civil protection, etc.
- Bureaucratic services. Identification and immigration service, administration of justice, registration of university degrees, civil registry, notaries, tourist services, commercial registry, historical archives, public cultural management, etc.
- Basic services. Electric light, gas service, drinking water, Internet access, public transportation, postal service, public education, public health or sanitation service, solid waste collection, etc.