ABSTRACT
"Making trains run on time" is a commonly used phrase synonymous with centralized efficiency, the kind imposed top down on a political system or organization. Mussolini's government fostered the idea by constructing impressive central stations and improving the rail lines between Rome and Milan to accelerate the trips of business people, government officials, and tourists. The strong pressures for structural and administrative unifications have flowed from unrelentingly powerful forces. One is informational homogenization, as exemplified by the National Center for State Courts, founded in 1971 at the urging of then chief justice of the United States, Warren Burger, and headquartered in Williamsburg, Virginia. Homogenizing pressures on local court administration stem not only from the diffusion of technology but also from other forms of information sharing. The center has complemented the process of achieving reporting uniformity through its State Court Model Statistical Dictionary, which has furnished common terminology, definitions, and usage in reporting caseloads at all levels.
