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The course analyzes both the role of the government in the economy, including its manifestation as a Welfare State, and the role played in the public sphere by civil society organizations. The first part deals with the theory of both market failures and government failures, the theory of collective economic action, the economic theory of democracy, the analysis of tax systems. The second part of the course uses the concepts developed in the first part to analyze specific governmental institutions, expenditure programs and taxes within a comparative international perspective. Major topics include health care, social insurance, redistribution programs, education, the politics of institutional choice, government decentralization (federalism), political capitalism, the digital revolution and algorethics.