The concept of public value was elaborated by M. Moore in his seminal book Creating Public Value. Although the general idea that public sector managers should create a value to the public, and ask for the legitimacy of their activities is clear, the basic notions of ”public value” and ”public value creation” are susceptible to interpretations. The article presents and analyses the most important concepts of public value. One of them is the concept of Kelly, Mulgan, Muers underpinned by strong economic assumptions on the nature of social preferences and economic value. Another concept, developed by Bennington contains a description of different aspects of public value – ecological, political, economic and cultural. The next concept developed by van der Wal and E. van Hout expresses an idea of the multiplicity and heterogeneity of public values which are incomparable. The aim of the paper is to identify the realm where public value is created. It seems to be that all opinions presented in the article regardless of the notions of public value they assume, express a statement that it is ”produced” in the domain of politics. Once again it confirms Moore’s initial idea, that the political process is crucial for public sector managers in creating public value. It is a big challenge for them, because it requires operation on the political market.

The concept of public value was elaborated by M. Moore in his seminal book Creating Public Value. Although the general idea that public sector managers should create a value to the public, and ask for the legitimacy of their activities is clear, the basic notions of ”public value” and ”public value creation” are susceptible to interpretations. The article presents and analyses the most important concepts of public value. One of them is the concept of Kelly, Mulgan, Muers underpinned by strong economic assumptions on the nature of social preferences and economic value. Another concept, developed by Bennington contains a description of different aspects of public value – ecological, political, economic and cultural. The next concept developed by van der Wal and E. van Hout expresses an idea of the multiplicity and heterogeneity of public values which are incomparable. The aim of the paper is to identify the realm where public value is created. It seems to be that all opinions presented in the article regardless of the notions of public value they assume, express a statement that it is ”produced” in the domain of politics. Once again it confirms Moore’s initial idea, that the political process is crucial for public sector managers in creating public value. It is a big challenge for them, because it requires operation on the political market.