Aaron Wildavsky, 1930 - 1993

Mr. Wildavsky was an extraordinary teacher, a provocative writer, and a flamboyant personality. Remarking on his book on Moses as a political leader, an Old Testament scholar once remarked: ‘There is more Wildavsky than Moses in the book; but then of course Wildavsky was more interesting than Moses.’

— A. Lawrence Chickering

Biography

Aaron Wildavsky was one of the best-known figures within academic political science in the 1970s and 1980s. The author, co-author, or editor of more than thirty-nine books and a great many articles, he was a long-time member of the faculty of the University of California, Berkeley.
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Introduction

Among Aaron Wildavsky’s many areas of concern were Presidential decision-making, budgeting, fiscal policy and deficits, safety risks and innovation, energy policy, the growth of affirmative action policies, urban governance, state-federal relations, the role of liberal elites in political consensus-making, Australian politics, communism and the Cold War, and Biblical exegesis.
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Featured Books

Featured Video

In this 1987 lecture, Aaron Wildavsky lectures on the relationship between risk and liberty.

Featured Essays