Minimalism in governance - Workers' compensation in a southern state

An examination of workers' compensation in a Southern state suggests a dist inctive minimalist approach to governance that imbues both the overall stru cture of the program and the administration of that program's components. T his article examines this minimalist stance in general and then considers i n more detail three separate components of the overall program: the determi nation 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 bared on a limited set of simple yet diffuse principle s and appears to have significant stability at a very moderate administrati ve cost. Throughout, the resilience of core program notions is matched by c onsiderable restraint in the application of those notions beyond specific, known contexts.