Law Commons^™

Minimalism And Experimentalism In The Administrative State, Charles F. Sabel, William H. Simon

Faculty Scholarship

This Article identifies and appraises the two most promising alternatives to the "command-and-control" style of public administration that was dominant from the New Deal to the 1980s but is now in disfavor The first – minimalism – emphasizes public interventions that incorporate market concepts and practices while also centralizing and minimizing administrative discretion. The second – experimentalism – emphasizes interventions in which the central government affords broad discretion to local administrative units but measures and assesses their performance in ways designed to induce continuous learning and revision of standards. Minimalism has been prominent in legal scholarship and in the policy …