Minimalism in governance : workers compensation in a southern state
By: HAINES, David W
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ArticlePublisher: Thousand Oaks : SAGE, November 1999Administration & Society 31, 5, p. 616-638Abstract: An examination of workers compensation in a Southern state suggests a distinctive minimalist approach to governance that imbues both the overall structure of the program and the administration of that programs components. This article examines this minimalist stance in general and then considers in more detail three separate components of the overall program: the determination of employer suitability for self-insurance, the determination of the appropriateness of medical costs, and the process by which administrative orders are entered awarding compensation for lost work time. For each, the minimalist stance is based on a limited set of simple yet diffuse principles and appears to have significant stability at a very moderate administrative cost. Throughout, the resilience of core program notions is matched by considerable restraint in the application of those notions beyond specific, known contexts
An examination of workers compensation in a Southern state suggests a distinctive minimalist approach to governance that imbues both the overall structure of the program and the administration of that programs components. This article examines this minimalist stance in general and then considers in more detail three separate components of the overall program: the determination of employer suitability for self-insurance, the determination of the appropriateness of medical costs, and the process by which administrative orders are entered awarding compensation for lost work time. For each, the minimalist stance is based on a limited set of simple yet diffuse principles and appears to have significant stability at a very moderate administrative cost. Throughout, the resilience of core program notions is matched by considerable restraint in the application of those notions beyond specific, known contexts
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