The article considers the problem of dichotomy of public values in the Western Anglo-Saxon political and legal tradition. The difference between the existing views on it in the national science is explained. In this regard, the author provides an etymological analysis of key terms and a historical overview of the background of the problem. The author analyses the axiological schemes of public administration: M. Moore's (strategic triangle model), T. Jorgensen and B. Bozeman's (model of value contexts), and E. Whitesman's (dynamic model of public values). The article proves the relevance of studying the problem of the dichotomy of public values and public assessment processes. In our opinion, this is due to the dependence of any governance system on value coordinates – the fact that values largely determine how a modern state can organise the governance process, increase the manageability and competitiveness of its institutions. Moreover, this dependence allows society to form (cyclically/acyclically) a system of social values on the basis of which the state carries out public administration practices. The following have been determined: a) Public value (in the context of New Public Management) is a product created not so much by the state as by society itself. In this case, the role of the state can be described as an executor of the will of the public. To a certain extent, this role can be compared to the role of the service sector, where the public is a consumer of services (client) and the state is a service provider (service); b) The model of E. Whitesman can hardly serve to unify the approaches of its predecessors. The researcher excluded the element of cyclicality from her scheme, which, in our opinion, achieves the opposite goal to the one she postulates. Instead of combining approaches, we have their multiplication, i.e. instead of one unified scheme, we get three separate models.