Wisconsin's Act 10 as New Public Management: A Critical Discursive Analysis of the Literature

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Abstract

This paper examines the policy discourse presented in research of Wisconsin’s Act 10. In 2011 Wisconsin Governor Walker signed the most poignant piece of legislation in the country to comprehensively change under what terms teachers as public employees collectively bargain. While public safety employees were exempt from any changes, Act 10 limited teachers’ collective bargaining rights to the ability to negotiate modest base wages. We frame Act 10 as an expression of New Public Management, a material manifestation of neoliberalism. Through Critical Discourse Analysis, we foreground assumptions in public Act 10 research and problematize the uncritical introduction of research on Act 10 on state and local politics and policy making.

Authors

• Rodney S. Whiteman, University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee

• David Hoa Khoa Nguyen, Indiana University - Purdue University at Indianapolis

• Craig J. Willey, Indiana University - Indianapolis