 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Public works" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(June 2017) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Public works are a broad category ofinfrastructure projects, financed andprocured by agovernment body for recreational, employment, and health and safety uses in the greatercommunity. They include public buildings (municipal buildings,schools, andhospitals),transport infrastructure (roads,railroads,bridges,pipelines,canals,ports, andairports),public spaces (public squares,parks, andbeaches), public services (water supply andtreatment,sewage treatment,electrical grid, anddams),environmental protection (drinking water protection, soil erosion reduction,wildlife habitat preservation, preservation and restoration of forests and wetlands) and other, usually long-term, physicalassets andfacilities. Though often interchangeable withpublic infrastructure andpublic capital, public works does not necessarily carry an economic component, thereby being a broader term. Construction may be undertaken either by directly employed labour or by a private operator.
Public works has been encouraged since antiquity. TheRoman emperorNero encouraged the construction of various infrastructure projects during widespreaddeflation.[1]
Public works is a multi-dimensional concept ineconomics andpolitics, touching on multiple arenas including: recreation (parks, beaches, trails), aesthetics (trees, green space), economy (goods and people movement, energy), law (police and courts), and neighborhood (community centers, social services buildings). It represents anyconstructed object that augments a nation's physical infrastructure.
Municipal infrastructure,urban infrastructure, andrural development usually represent the same concept but imply either large cities ordeveloping nations' concerns respectively. The termspublic infrastructure orcritical infrastructure are at times used interchangeably. However, critical infrastructure includes public works (dams, waste water systems, bridges, etc.) as well as facilities like hospitals, banks, and telecommunications systems and views them from anational security viewpoint and the impact on the community that the loss of such facilities would entail.
Furthermore, the term public works has recently been expanded to include digital public infrastructure projects. For example, in theUnited States, the first nationwide digital public works project is an effort to create an open source software platform for e-voting (created and managed by the Open Source Digital Voting Foundation).[2]
Reflecting increased concern withsustainability,urban ecology andquality of life, efforts to move towardssustainable municipal infrastructure are common indeveloped nations, especially in theEuropean Union andCanada (where theFCM InfraGuide provides an officially mandatedbest practice exchange to move municipalities in that direction).
A public employment programme or public works programme is the provision of employment by the creation of predominantlypublic goods at a prescribed wage for those unable to find alternative employment. This functions as a form ofsocial safety net. Public works programmes are activities which entail the payment of a wage (in cash or in kind) by the state, or by an Agent (or cash-for work/CFW). One particular form of public works, that of offering a short-term period of employment, has come to dominate practice, particularly in regions such asSub-Saharan Africa. Applied in the short term, this is appropriate as a response to transient shocks and acute labour market crises.[3]
Investing in public works projects in order to stimulate the general economy has been a popular policy measure since the economic crisis of the 1930s. Spearheaded by U.S. Secretary of LaborFrances Perkins, the first female Cabinet member in the United States, theNew Deal resulted in the creation of programs such as theCivilian Conservation Corps,Public Works Administration, and theWorks Progress Administration, among others, all of which created public goods through labor and infrastructure investments.[4]
More recent examples are the 2008–2009Chinese economic stimulus program, India'sNational Infrastructure Pipeline of 2020, the2008 European Union stimulus plan, and theAmerican Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.
While it is argued that capital investment in public works can be used to reduce unemployment, opponents of internal improvement programs argue that such projects should be undertaken by theprivate sector, not thepublic sector, because public works projects are often inefficient and costly to taxpayers. Further, some argue that public works, when used excessively by a government, are characteristic ofsocialism and other public or collectivist forms of government because of their 'tax and spend' policies to achieve long-term economic improvement. However, in the private sector, entrepreneurs bear their own losses[citation needed] and so private-sector firms are generally unwilling to undertake projects that could result in losses or would not develop a revenue stream. Governments will invest in public works because of the overall benefit to society when there is a lack of private sector benefit (a project that does generate revenue) or the risk is too great for a private company to accept on its own.
According to research conducted at theAalborg University, 86% of public works projects end up with cost overruns. Some findings of the research were the following:
Generally, contracts awarded by public tenders include a provision for unexpected expenses (cost overruns), which typically amount to 10% of the value of the contract. This money is spent during the course of the project only if the construction managers judge that it is necessary, and the expenditure must typically be justified in writing.
The dictionary definition ofpublic works at Wiktionary
