Public finance in postulates of economic schools: genesis of theories

Abstract

The article aims to study the genesis of public finance theories in the context of social development due to the need to determine the role of the state in providing social services and the efficiency and quality of public goods. The need for research is generated by two aspects: the dependence of the state and vector of public finance development on the historical and political conditions of state development; the need to develop tools, institutions, and procedures in the context of expanding state participation in the provision of social services to the population. Theoretical aspects of determining public and private goods and their place in the theory of public finance are substantiated. The public and private goods are compared and their essential characteristics are revealed. The key features of public goods (non-competitiveness, non-exclusion, indivisibility) are highlighted. The article addresses the peculiarities of scientific approaches to the issue of financing the manufacture and providing public goods to representatives of various scientific schools and trends (classical political economy, fiscal exchange models, theory of economic sociodynamics, libertarian theory, institutional economic theory, new classical macroeconomics, etc). The experience of developed countries in the historical context clearly indicates that despite the diversity and differences of national economic models focusing on different schools of economic theory, there is a constant gradual strengthening of the role of the state in social development. Emphasis is placed on changing the role of the state in modern conditions of forming new priorities and implementing the Sustainable Development Goals that ensure the development of human capital and provide the population with quality public goods. The article substantiates that in modern conditions, the issues of social services efficiency as a guarantee of human capital development, their maximum proximity to consumers, the role of the state and public administration system in the social sphere, and balancing the public finance system in ensuring social and economic progress are increasingly relevant.