EFFIZIENZ UND INNERE SICHERHEIT

SUMMARY The public good ‘internal security’ is not absolutely indivisible. To a certain degree it is possible to differentiate between the actual good, its supply and demand, just as to exclude from consumption. This opens a door to a widely neglected efficiency analysis in this classical field of state activity. Neither the private market mechanism nor the political decision‐making process seem to be practicable instruments. A solution based on a social welfare function appears equally unsuited. Therefore cost‐benefit must be applied as a means of calculating efficiency, if the public good ‘internal protection’ is sensibly defined in the broadest sense that is according to functional, personal, regional, temporal, and sociological viewpoints or in terms of purveyor and recipient of public security, expressed in monetary or technical units. Success or failure in calculating efficiency of internal order and protection depend above all on whether (a) the particular kinds of public safety (life, health, honesty, freedom and property) are comprehensible and definable; (b) the several components (projects) are comparable and (c) the indices of cost and benefit stand in reasonable relationship to each other, which of course does not mean that this connection must be ‘monocausaP and linear. The author evaluates criteria for measuring the benefits and costs. Some empirical analyses reveal the possibilities and limitations of these quantitative methods and legal institutions. At the end, in the field of police, the author shows the ways and means to increase efficiency in the political and administrative process.