The public good
Concept · Politics, stage 1: Learn the vocabulary
The public or common good is the set of conditions that benefit a political community as a whole rather than any particular part of it: working courts, clean air, public safety, an educated population. An appeal to it claims that some interests are genuinely shared, so that politics is not only a bargain struck between competing private interests. Critics argue that such appeals paper over real disagreement about ends, and that they can be used to override the claims of individuals and minorities in the name of a good those people do not recognise.
Why it matters
It is the standard justification for asking people to bear costs they would not choose on their own, from taxation to conscription.
Part of
The public good in the glossary
Sources
- The Common Good Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- Republicanism Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyThe tradition that leans hardest on the idea of a good shared by citizens as citizens.
- Common good Wikipedia
