The public interest and the common good: Synonymous or subset?

The concept of 'public interest' prima facie coincides, at least, with concepts of 'common good'. 'Common good' is an ancient conceptuality forgegrounded as 'Commonwealth' at Federation, and arguably reflected machineries of governance for the 'public interest'. This chapter correlates recent contributions ) on 'common good' in philosophical theology (D. Sulmasy) and economics (T. Murphy and J. Parkey) to propose some respects in which public actors may assert how actions in the 'public interest' serve the 'common good', and to determine where other actions or policies may fail a 'common good' test.