A new perspective on the public sector that presents a concise and comprehensive analysis of exactly what it is and how it operates. Governments in any society deliver a large number of services and goods to their populations. To get the job done, they need public management in order to steer resources - employees, money and laws - into policy outputs and outcomes. In well-ordered societies the teams who work for the state work under a rule-of-law framework, known as public administration. This book covers the key issues of: the principal-agent framework and the public sector; public principals and their agents; the economic reasons of government; public organisation, incentives and rationality in government; the essence of public administration: legality and the rule of law; public policy criteria: the Cambridge and Chicago positions; public teams and private teams; public firms; public insurance; and public management policy. This book is essential reading for those with professional and research interests in public administration and public management. Jan-Erik Lane is professor of political science at the University of Geneva and has taught courses on government in several countries.