Public property is

property Property is a system of rights that gives people legal control of valuable things, and also refers to the valuable things themselves. Depending on the nature of the property, an owner of property may have the right to consume, alter, share, re ...

that is dedicated to public use. The term may be used either to describe the use to which the property is put, or to describe the character of its ownership (owned collectively by the

population Population is a set of humans or other organisms in a given region or area. Governments conduct a census to quantify the resident population size within a given jurisdiction. The term is also applied to non-human animals, microorganisms, and pl ...

of a

state State most commonly refers to: * State (polity), a centralized political organization that regulates law and society within a territory **Sovereign state, a sovereign polity in international law, commonly referred to as a country **Nation state, a ...

State ownership State ownership, also called public ownership or government ownership, is the ownership of an Industry (economics), industry, asset, property, or Business, enterprise by the national government of a country or State (polity), state, or a publi ...

, also called public ownership, government ownership or state property, are property interests that are vested in the

, rather than an

individual An individual is one that exists as a distinct entity. Individuality (or self-hood) is the state or quality of living as an individual; particularly (in the case of humans) as a person unique from other people and possessing one's own needs or g ...

communities A community is a Level of analysis, social unit (a group of people) with a shared socially-significant characteristic, such as place (geography), place, set of Norm (social), norms, culture, religion, values, Convention (norm), customs, or Ide ...

Differences from private property

American economist Armen A. Alchian explored what distinguishes public property from private property, concluding that a unique difference lies in the limitations put on its alienability. That is, a crucial feature of public property lies in the inability of their owners to sell or grant them to others. According to Alchian, private property is that which can be transferred at the discretion of its owners, whilst public property is that which cannot. Consequently, because of the absence of exchange in much of what is public property and thereby the absence of market prices reflecting its value, it is difficult for a government to appraise its holdings. This can lead to problems with economic calculation. Both rights with respect to public and private property are in part determined by governments. The owner of a

private property Private property is a legal designation for the ownership of property by non-governmental Capacity (law), legal entities. Private property is distinguishable from public property, which is owned by a state entity, and from Collective ownership ...

can control it at own discretion, whilst the state reserves the right to charge taxes and nationalize it, or temporarily use it. The difference between public and private property lies in their alienability. Most public property is government-provided and not charged for separately to users, but open to the public. However, it is incorrect to say that all public property can be used freely by the public. Many public goods are provided only to subsets of the population, such as care for the elderly and playgrounds for children. That is, the 'public' may vary and does not in fact determine its public or private nature.

In Marxism

Karl Marx Karl Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, political theorist, economist, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. He is best-known for the 1848 pamphlet '' The Communist Manifesto'' (written with Friedrich Engels) ...

described private property as a fundamental social relation of bourgeois society, where it is used for appropriation of labor by capitalists. Marx considered that public property will replace the private property, as a natural historical change of a property relationship.

All property relations in the past have continually been subject to historical change consequent upon the change in historical conditions. The French Revolution, for example, abolished feudal property in favour of bourgeois property. The distinguishing feature of Communism is not the abolition of property generally, but the abolition of bourgeois property. But modern bourgeois private property is the final and most complete expression of the system of producing and appropriating products, that is based on class antagonisms, on the exploitation of the many by the few. In this sense, the theory of the Communists may be summed up in the single sentence: Abolition of private property. – Marx & Engels: Library: 1848: ''
The Communist Manifesto ''The Communist Manifesto'' (), originally the ''Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (), is a political pamphlet written by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, commissioned by the Communist League and originally published in London in 1848. The ...
'': Chapter 2

Generally, in Marxism, private property is understood as property that is used by bourgeoisie to increase capital.

Crown property

In the modern

representative democracy Representative democracy, also known as indirect democracy or electoral democracy, is a type of democracy where elected delegates represent a group of people, in contrast to direct democracy. Nearly all modern Western-style democracies func ...

, "public property" is said to be owned by the people as a

commons The commons is the cultural and natural resources accessible to all members of a society, including natural materials such as air, water, and a habitable Earth. These resources are held in common even when owned privately or publicly. Commons ...

or held in trust by the government for common benefit. In many

Commonwealth realm A Commonwealth realm is a sovereign state in the Commonwealth of Nations that has the same constitutional monarch and head of state as the other realms. The current monarch is King Charles III. Except for the United Kingdom, in each of the re ...

s, such property is said to be owned by

the Crown The Crown is a political concept used in Commonwealth realms. Depending on the context used, it generally refers to the entirety of the State (polity), state (or in federal realms, the relevant level of government in that state), the executive ...

. Examples include

Crown land Crown land, also known as royal domain, is a territorial area belonging to the monarch, who personifies the Crown. It is the equivalent of an entailed estate and passes with the monarchy, being inseparable from it. Today, in Commonwealth realm ...

Crown copyright Crown copyright is a type of copyright protection. It subsists in works of the governments of some Commonwealth realms and provides special copyright rules for the Crown, i.e. government departments and (generally) state entities.Judge, E. F. (201 ...

, and

Crown Dependencies The Crown Dependencies are three dependent territory, offshore island territories in the British Islands that are self-governing possessions of the The Crown, British Crown: the Bailiwick of Guernsey and the Jersey, Bailiwick of Jersey, both lo ...

Examples

USSR

According to the 1977 Constitution of the Soviet Union:

State property, i. e. the common property of the Soviet people, is the principal form of socialist property. The land, its minerals, waters, and forests are the exclusive property of the state. The state owns the basic means of production in industry, construction, and agriculture; means of transport and communication; the banks; the property of state-run trade organisations and public utilities, and other state-run undertakings; most urban housing; and other property necessary for state purposes. – Article 11

But "public property" itself as a separate form was not foreseen, instead there was

social ownership Social ownership is a type of property where an asset is recognized to be in the possession of society as a whole rather than individual members or groups within it. Social ownership of the means of production is the defining characteristic of ...

of the

means of production In political philosophy, the means of production refers to the generally necessary assets and resources that enable a society to engage in production. While the exact resources encompassed in the term may vary, it is widely agreed to include the ...

United States

Alaska Alaska ( ) is a non-contiguous U.S. state on the northwest extremity of North America. Part of the Western United States region, it is one of the two non-contiguous U.S. states, alongside Hawaii. Alaska is also considered to be the north ...

since the 1950s was working off the model of public property in the resource sector. There was almost one third of the state with huge reserves of oil. For the realization of the right onto the public property in 1976 was founded

Alaska Permanent Fund The Alaska Permanent Fund (APF) is a constitutionally established permanent fund managed by a state-owned corporation, the Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation (APFC). It was established in Alaska in 1976 by Article 9, Section 15 of the Alaska Sta ...

, which included 25% of the annual fee of the incomes of private oil-producing companies. That fund is the public property of the state population.What is expressed in payment of dividends to all citizens(except convicted criminals). The average value of the dividends is between $600 and $1500, for the 2020 it was $992.

Canada

In Canada, the ''Public Debt and Property'' are under the exclusive legislative authority of the parliament of Canada, rather than the Queen or the local authority, according to the Constitution Acts, 1867 and 1982, article 91.

Common land

Common land Common land is collective land (sometimes only open to those whose nation governs the land) in which all persons have certain common rights, such as to allow their livestock to graze upon it, to collect wood, or to cut turf for fuel. A person ...

was in a public usage of a village community for cattle breeding, growing cereals, fishing. Forest lands were used for timber extraction.

References

{{Authority control Property law

Property Property is a system of rights that gives people legal control of valuable things, and also refers to the valuable things themselves. Depending on the nature of the property, an owner of property may have the right to consume, alter, share, re ...