From the perspective of the subject of state management, administrative researchers believe that public services are activities of state agencies in performing state administrative management functions and ensuring the supply of goods. serving the common and essential needs of society. This understanding emphasizes the role and responsibility of the state for the activities of providing public goods, arguing that the main characteristic of public services is activities that meet the essential needs of society and the community. and the implementation of such activities can be undertaken by the state or the private sector.

The concept and scope of public services will vary depending on the context of each country. For example, in Canada, there are 34 types of activities that are considered public services, ranging from defense, security, legislation, to socio-economic policies (job creation, planning, environmental protection, etc.) and activities of health, education, culture, social insurance,). In particular, France and Italy both consider public services as activities serving the essential needs of the people, undertaken by state agencies or by organizations and individuals according to the standards and regulations of the Government. government. In France, the concept of public service is widely understood, including activities that serve the mental and health needs of the people (such as education, culture, health care, sports, often referred to as civic activities). industrial activities), activities serving residential life of an industrial nature (electricity, water, public transport, environmental sanitation are often considered public activities), or public administrative services including activities of administrative agencies on licensing, household registration and civil status but also tax, order, security and defense activities; while in Italy public services are limited mainly to non-business activities (health care, education) and public economic activities (electricity, clean water, sanitation) and licensing activities, household registration. , civil status by administrative agencies.

In Vietnam, the focus is more on the social service function of the state, but does not include public functions, such as legislative, executive, judicial, diplomatic, thereby emphasizing the role of the subject. government in providing services to the community. It is important that we soon separate public service activities (long known as non-business activities) from public administration activities as the Government's policy has set out in order to eliminate the subsidy mechanism and reduce load for the state apparatus, exploit all potential resources in society, and improve the quality of public services serving the people. Article 22 of the Law on Organization of Government (2001) stipulates: Ministries and ministerial-level agencies are government agencies performing the function of state management of public services in sectors and fields. This does not mean that the state monopolizes the provision of public services, but on the contrary, the state can completely socialize some services, thereby granting part of the provision of part of some services, such as health care, education, water supply and drainage, for the non-state sector to implement.

It can be seen that the concept and scope of public services, although approached from many different angles, they all have the common nature of serving the essential common needs and interests of society. Even when the state transfers part of the provision of public services to the private sector, the state still has a regulatory role to ensure fairness in the distribution of these services and to overcome market inadequacies. school.

From the above properties, public services are understood in a broad sense and in a narrow sense.

In a broad sense, public services are goods and services that the Government intervenes to provide for the purpose of efficiency and fairness. Accordingly, public services are all activities aimed at performing the inherent functions of the Government, including from policy, legal, and judicial activities to health and education activities. , public transport.

In a narrow sense, public services are understood as goods and services that directly serve the needs of organizations and citizens that the Government intervenes to provide for the purpose of efficiency and fairness.