Public values: citizens’ perspective

Drawing data from more than 2,000 US citizens, the current article focuses on empirically derived citizens’ public values. Objectives include: (1) to provide and analyse empirical data on citizens’ specific views about what does and does not constitute a public value, (2) to distinguish between ‘Contested’ and ‘Consensus’ public values; (3) to suggest some implications of citizens’ public value assessment in terms of their theoretical meaning; (4) to compare expressed vs. enacted public values (based on decision vignettes). Findings show widespread agreement about a handful of putative public values, but when enacted in vignettes responses are inconsistent.