On the Priorities of Government: A Developmental Analysis of Public Policies

Abstract The article provides a classification of the activities of the modern state, embracing 32 Western-type nations from 1849. The first two sections of the paper elaborate a comprehensive conceptual framework for classifying activities as defining, mobilizing of physical resources, and providing social benefits. These three types of activities are shown to have developed sequentially in the order named. A mortmain proposition is tested and confirmed demonstrating that states tend not to abandon activities. A convergence proposition is tested and rejected; there is no common pattern of resource mobilization and social services in contemporary industrial nations. The concluding section considers the priorities of states when constrained by resource limitations. Priorities are examined in terms of effectiveness and efficiency; the likelihood of creating losers as well as beneficiaries; and the need to maintain defining activities as a sine qua non of the existence of the state.