Many believe that shifts in the line between the public and private realms are the key determinants of the changes in the economic system. For instance, Robert Heilbroner states the matter bluntly: “In my opinion no single issue will be more profoundly determinative of the future of the system than the relation of its two realms. I do not mean by this that there exists some ‘optimal’ mix of public and private spheres …“ Although I believe that shifts in the boundary between the public and private sectors are important, I argue in this chapter that I do not believe these shifts will be very significant in the United States in the next few decades. The next chapter focuses on other changes in the economic system having greater importance in the years to come.

The perspective afforded by the analysis of structural complexity leads us to ask three important questions about the behavior of the government sector. In what way is the shifting line between the public and private sector influenced by changes in structural complexity of the economic system? To what extent does the U.S. government act as a generator of structural complexity? And what is the impact of structural complexity on the effectiveness of governmental actions?

As enterprise managers must face and respond to an increasingly complex economic environment, discussed in detail in Chapter 6, so must the government.