DOCTRINAIRE CONTROVERSIES ON THE CONCEPT OF PUBLIC SERVICE

Abstract

The article identifies the doctrinaire controversies existing in defining the public service. The main idea in defining the public service, as a an activity conducted or authorized by an administrative authority, is inextricably linked with the idea of general interest. In this context the public service must be considered as being an activity conducted by the public authorities in order to satisfy the general interests, because the public service appears only when the community points out some general need. We can say that the necessity of the public service establishment is justified by the existence of a general need, common to the entire human collectivity or to a certain collectivity. The term of public services was defined across the time from different perspectives, being used both by public management and administrative law. The notion of public service has appeared and developed constantly in the context of increasing the general needs of the human society. The problem of defining the concept of public service is, at the present, an extremely complex one, especially if we take into consideration the fact that, both through the content and through the modalities of organization, the public service represents a key component in building public administration.