Amid this array of options,this article focuses
on three roles that the public plays relative to
public management:as citizen, customer, and partner.
The logic for this choice is straightforward:
First,as documented later, each of those roles encompasses a substantial proportion
of the public’s interactions with public management, and the
several roles together cover most of those interactions.
Second, the three roles can subsume some other roles, including those of regulatee,
beneficiary, and client (e.g., Alford 2009, 34–35; Frederickson 1991, 404–5),
thereby encompassing even more of the public’s
interactions with public management.
Third, parsimony matters.
Limiting discussion to three roles can simplify discussion, yet not at
substantial cost if the three encompass most interactions.