The Entrepreneurial State

This seminar examines the increasing powerful theory and practice of "running government like a business."  We will consider local, state, and federal case studies in which government operates through businesses, according to business principles, and as if it were a for-profit (or at least revenue-generating) enterprise.  At times, such approaches lead to highly commercialized, commodified engagement with the public.  And, at other times, what we encounter is something that very much approximates socialism. We will on occasion investigate the practices of other nations, principally for purposes of enriching our domestic inquiry and illuminating transnational trends.    Of particular interest will be the normative rationale for "running government like a business," the legal implications of such a turn toward the market, and the complexities and contradictions of a State that is perhaps best characterized as neoliberally socialist.  Non-JD students may enroll only after obtaining the written permission of the instructor.