Re: Why does tenure exist?
Don't federal and state workers effectively have tenure? Isn't it virtually impossible to fire a government worker covered by civil service in America? DBL
Re: Why does tenure exist?
>(2) I am beginning to doubt that "worker managed firm" >describes the university. I'm not faculty (yet!) but from what >I understand, the university administration has great >power in the university. If they want, administrators can change >standards for tenure and cut budgets and they control the >physical plant, and other stuff. The "worker managed lable" >applies just to the department. There is no reason the administration >has to allow tenure to exist. > >Fabio My point was not that we had tenure because the department was a worker managed firm and the workers wanted tenure. My conjecture was that we had tenure because tenure is at least sometimes efficient in a worker managed firm. If so, the university administrators might support tenure because they want the professors to spend more time on teaching and research and less on departmental politics. -- David Friedman Professor of Law Santa Clara University [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.daviddfriedman.com/
Re: Why does tenure exist?
> One possible explanation for tenure is that university departments > are to a large degree worker managed firms. One problem with a worker > David Friedman David's explanations make sense, but I'm empirically skeptical on two grounds: (1) Why is it that only educational worker managed firms have tenure? I could be wrong, but why don't kibbutzes have tenure? or Berkeley's bohemian co-ops? (2) I am beginning to doubt that "worker managed firm" describes the university. I'm not faculty (yet!) but from what I understand, the university administration has great power in the university. If they want, administrators can change standards for tenure and cut budgets and they control the physical plant, and other stuff. The "worker managed lable" applies just to the department. There is no reason the administration has to allow tenure to exist. Fabio
