Public Interests and the Theory of Public Goods

The article is devoted to the modern public economics. The author analyzes the German "Finanzwissenschaft" tradition. Major issues connected to the problem of interests of the society as a whole were raised within this tradition: the problem of public goods pricing and the free-rider problem. The author considers this tradition taking into account the neoclassical economic concept of public sector. The article introduces the "public goods paradox" - incompatibility of methodological individualism and the positive demand for public goods. The author criticizes neoclassical theories (P. Samuelson, R. Musgrave, H. Margolis) and proposes a new approach. He develops the complementarity principle alternative to methodological individualism. According to this idea interests of the society as a whole are irreducible to interests of individuals.