Public Organisational Core Capacity: An International and Organisational Perspective of Inherently Governmental Activity

Embedded in US federal executive regulatory documents that direct public policy regarding the administration of governmentally-consumed commercially available products or services, the concept of inherently governmental activity addresses the relationship between the public and private sectors and is aligned with privatisation during the era of New Public Management. As our realities and models of governance become more complex, incorporating networks of multi-sectorial stakeholders in networks of diffuse power, our discourse about what constitutes inherently governmental activity has not kept pace. To be useful in an international context and an era of inter-organisational governance, the idea of inherently governmental activity is reconceptualizes from an international and organisational perspective and introduces the notion of public organisational core capacity, which is required to ensure inherently governmental activities are led and managed well.