Ethics and coproduction of public services: a rationale from Habermas

Abstract

The production of public goods and services is a process that can be organized in different ways in society, and it is necessary to determine ways that satisfy not only individual but also collective interests. The co-production is a strategy in which the definition of goods and services to be produced by the Public Administration requires a democratic and participatory process involving citizens. A historical review of the concept of co-production is made in order to define their characteristics and its operation, highlighting its procedural character. In this sense, the organization of citizens’ efforts must obey moral rules, and this article has as its objective to search for an ethical foundation to coproduction. As this foundation, Habermas’s discursive ethics is discussed as a way to guide co-production procedures. The democratic character of discursive ethics and co-production is discussed to demonstrate the congruence between the two theories. The article, written in the form of a theoretical essay, concludes that, although there are aspects of Habermas' theory that are not entirely adequate to the concept of co-production, the possibilities for its application are high, justifying further discussions on the subject.