People’s views on how the government should conduct its financial operations
are heavily influenced by their political philosophies. Some people’s top
priority is individual freedom; others place more emphasis on promoting the
well-being of the community as a whole. Philosophical differences can and do
lead to disagreements on the appropriate scope for government economic
activity.
However, forming intelligent opinions about public policy requires not
only a political philosophy but also an understanding of what government
actually does. Who has the legal power to conduct economic policy? What
does government spend money on, and how does it raise revenue? Chapter 1
discusses how political views affect attitudes toward public finance, and outlines
the operation of the US system of public finance. It provides a broad framework
for thinking about the details of the public finance system that are discussed in
subsequent chapters.
Chapters 2and 3present the analytical tools used by public finance
economists. Chapter 2focuses on the tools of positive analysis, which deals
with statements of cause and effect. The question here is how economists
try to assess the impacts of various government policies. However, we want
to determine not only the effects of government policies, but whether or
not they produce results that are in some sense good. This is the role of
normative analysis, which requires an explicit ethical framework, because
without one, it is impossible to say what is good. This ethical framework is
covered in Chapter 3

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