Since the 1980s, the language used around market-based government has muddied its meaning and polarized its proponents and critics, making the topic politicized and controversial. Competition, Choice, and Incentives in Government Programs hopes to reframe competing views of market-based government so it is seen not as an ideology but rather as a fact-based set of approaches for managing government services and programs more efficiently and effectively.

'Sustainment' (as commonly defined by industry and government), is comprised of maintenance, support, and upgrade practices that sustain or improve the performance of a system and maximize the availability of goods and services while minimizing their cost and footprint or, more simply, the capacity of a system to endure. Sustainment is a multi-trillion-dollar enterprise for critical systems, in both government (infrastructure and defense) and industry (transportation, industrial controls, ...