Introduction

The impetus for this edited volume is a set of questions about the grounding of public value claims and the public actions those claims are intended to justify. Under what conditions is it possible to know what value for the public as a whole government decisions and actions will create? How do complexities in the exercise of public authority shape public value claims and the realization of value in public actions? How do specific decision processes, and particular assemblages of actors, make it more or less likely that public decision-making will create public value? This Introduction provides a conceptual framework for the volume and briefly summarizes how the chapter authors approach one or more of the volume’s animating questions.