Chaos and disorder in the public housing system of San Juan, Puerto Rico (second largest in the US, prompt the newly-elected governor Pedro Rosello to consider an unprecedented new approach: using the island's national guard troops to patrol the projects. The Guard would replace police who had become so frightened or corrupted by the dominance of drug gangs in public housing that they seldom ventured into the apartment complexes at all. The National Guard, moreover, was a popular force on the island. At the same time, Rosello knew that there were risks associated with calling out the Guard. Many in its ranks were young and inexperienced. Sustaining the commitment over time would be difficult and expensive. The kind of tactics thought necessary to regain control of the projects might offend civil libertarians. The new governor, urged on by the superintendent of police, had to decide whether and how to deploy the Guard. HKS Case Number 1390.0

Chaos and disorder in the public housing system of San Juan, Puerto Rico (second largest in the US, prompt the newly-elected governor Pedro Rosello to consider an unprecedented new approach: using the island's national guard troops to patrol the projects. The Guard would replace police who had become so frightened or corrupted by the dominance of drug gangs in public housing that they seldom ventured into the apartment complexes at all. The National Guard, moreover, was a popular force on the island. At the same time, Rosello knew that there were risks associated with calling out the Guard. Many in its ranks were young and inexperienced. Sustaining the commitment over time would be difficult and expensive. The kind of tactics thought necessary to regain control of the projects might offend civil libertarians. The new governor, urged on by the superintendent of police, had to decide whether and how to deploy the Guard. HKS Case Number 1390.0

The federal Occupational Health and Safety Administration, created by Congress in 1970 to curtail what was viewed as a still-alarming level of industrial accidents, had, 20 years later, become a lightning rod for controversy. Its advocates viewed it as a bulwark of the defense of sale working conditions but opponents portrayed it as abusively intrusive, creating bureaucratic nightmares for employers. With that backdrop -- and with dwindling manpower and other resources -- OSHA officials in Maine, in 1991, try a radically different approach to their task, targeting 200 businesses which data has told them are the state's most important to bring into compliance. OSHA hopes both to avoid diluting the inspection capacity it has -- and to find ways to persuade, rather than to coerce through the law, business to make improvements. The apparent success of the Maine 200 program comes at a time when the new Clinton Administration is eager to find such government "reinvention" programs it can widely replicate. This case allows, first, for analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the Maine 200 effort as an example of gaining compliance through a new form of enforcement, and, second, for discussion of the complications, and advisability, of taking a small program "to scale." HKS Case Number 1371.0

The federal Occupational Health and Safety Administration, created by Congress in 1970 to curtail what was viewed as a still-alarming level of industrial accidents, had, 20 years later, become a lightning rod for controversy. Its advocates viewed it as a bulwark of the defense of sale working conditions but opponents portrayed it as abusively intrusive, creating bureaucratic nightmares for employers. With that backdrop -- and with dwindling manpower and other resources -- OSHA officials in Maine, in 1991, try a radically different approach to their task, targeting 200 businesses which data has told them are the state's most important to bring into compliance. OSHA hopes both to avoid diluting the inspection capacity it has -- and to find ways to persuade, rather than to coerce through the law, business to make improvements. The apparent success of the Maine 200 program comes at a time when the new Clinton Administration is eager to find such government "reinvention" programs it can widely replicate. This case allows, first, for analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the Maine 200 effort as an example of gaining compliance through a new form of enforcement, and, second, for discussion of the complications, and advisability, of taking a small program "to scale." HKS Case Number 1372.0

The federal Occupational Health and Safety Administration, created by Congress in 1970 to curtail what was viewed as a still-alarming level of industrial accidents, had, 20 years later, become a lightning rod for controversy. Its advocates viewed it as a bulwark of the defense of sale working conditions but opponents portrayed it as abusively intrusive, creating bureaucratic nightmares for employers. With that backdrop -- and with dwindling manpower and other resources -- OSHA officials in Maine, in 1991, try a radically different approach to their task, targeting 200 businesses which data has told them are the state's most important to bring into compliance. OSHA hopes both to avoid diluting the inspection capacity it has -- and to find ways to persuade, rather than to coerce through the law, business to make improvements. The apparent success of the Maine 200 program comes at a time when the new Clinton Administration is eager to find such government "reinvention" programs it can widely replicate. HKS Case Number 1373.0