should public services be controllled by the state or by the public?

[wasteman]

I feel as though things such as health care and public transport should be in the hands of the state and be tightly controlled with a defined hierachy, but how would you stop over spending, because the opposition will ALWAYS bring up the amount you are spending in an election and promise to cut spending!?

Because these days services controlled by the state are always critisized for overspending or bad decisions made by one worker in the hierachy blamed on the whole state

[Gleb]

There shouldn't be any difference between "the state" and "the public".

[wasteman]

what if a revolution has occured and the government is controlled by a marxist government

[scarletghoul]

To answer the title question, both. The state should be controlled by the people, and should be used by them to control things.

You seem to just think of the state as the current bourgeois state, that is alienated from the people and operates as a coercive force over them. In socialism the state will become a tool for the people to maintain and shape society, so things like "over spending" or whatever won't be an issue, because it will be done according to a common plan.

[rebelmouse]

I will tell you how it was in Yugoslavia in the time of Tito:
1) all people had health care and state paid for it. I am not sure for Roma/Gypsies, some of them were always out of system and I never asked them if they could use doctor like other people.
-directors in health care houses were positioned by political party and they could steal money without problem. cops could only kiss them in ass, because cops would never dare themselves to arrest someone positioned by political party. cops were under control. although some of directors were satisfied with salary so they didn't steal anything. but mostly of them stole. beside it, there was always "friendship and relatives relationships" which people used to get doctor before other people, to get scanner or some other therapy before other people... so, there were people who are more important than other people. who had biger position in communist state, she/he was more important.

2)public transport: public transport company belonged to the state, the same as health care, company where you work, paid for you transport, the rest of people paid from pocket if they travel anywhere in the city or between cities.
-again, directors of such companies favorised their relatives about giving of jobs, directors were positioned by party and they were blabla communists, they were communists just to get position to steal money.
therefore now, in the process of transition, ex-communists became new capitalists. they had position and they can buy transport company for 10 000 dollars and they sell it for 10 million dollars. that's happened in russia and in yugoslavia, political party was totally corrupted and the main problem.

so, if you want to avoid such problems, you must make economic equality, when chef has the same salary like cleaning worker, believe me, nobody will do dirty things to become chef or director and nobody will be fake communists because better position in party will not bring him function which will give him possibility to steal money.
so: all people must have equal salaries in order to avoid fake behavior. but it is conflict which rulers can't accept. if you give to chef of secret agency the same life like to cleaning worker, believe me, such chef will do everything to dethrone you. therefore there was no communist state than socialist dictatorship in which was economic inequality and corruption. privileges for those who serves you keep you at the top of dictatorship. abolish them such privileges and you will be no more at the top. it is technic of ruling which is for dictators much more important than life of cleaning worker. dictators see revolution like himself, like that no one else can lead communist state than only one person. only idiot can believe that there is only one communist person with competence to lead communist state. there are crowd of them, but one of them will destroy all other who try to take his position.
of course, I speak about communist people, I am not communist. there is difference between communist theory and behavior of communists when they get authority in their hands.

[el_chavista]

so: all people must have equal salaries in order to avoid fake behavior.

...When it was the turn of our comrades from Inveval factory, Chávez focused on political questions at this time saying that it is more important than questions about production.
He was interested in knowing how to handle the paying scale in the enterprise, because in all the interventions of the other factories taken by their workers they had highlighted the scale of wages in line with the positions that everyone has in them.

When the comrades in Inveval told that everyone, from the president to the janitor, earn the same, Chavez called for an applause for them, saying: "You have understood the purpose of this process." (from a meeting of workers with Chávez, 2006)