Tag: Political Science

Topics

Books

Politics of the Budgetary Process

– Wildavsky, Aaron. Politics of the Budgetary Process. Boston: Little, Brown & Company, 1964.
“In this very readable book A. Wildavsky challenges traditional normative approaches to a theory of budgeting and proposes a political basis for understanding the budget process.… More

The Two Presidencies

– Wildavsky, Aaron. "The Two Presidencies," Trans-Action/Society, 4 (1966): 7-14.
“The United States has one president, but it has two presidencies; one presidency is for domestic affairs, and the other is concerned with defense and foreign policy. Since World War… More

PPBS: the Political Economy of Efficiency,

– Wildavsky, Aaron. "PBBS: The Political Economy of Efficiency," Public Interest, Summer 1967.
There was a day when the meaning of economic efficiency was reasonably dear. An objective met up with a technician. Efficiency consisted in meeting the objective at the lowest cost or in… More

The Empty Head Blues — Black Rebellion and White Reaction?

– Wildavsky, Aaron. "The Empty Head Blues - Black Rebellion and White Reaction?" Public Interest, Spring 1968.  
Liberals have been moaning those empty-head blues. They feel bad. They know the sky is about to fall in. But they can’t think of anything to do. Having been too sanguine and too… More

Does Planning Work?

– Wildavsky, Aaron. "Does Planning Work?" Public Interest Summer 1971.
The individual versus the state; freedom versus dictatorship; private enterprise versus state control; price systems versus hierarchical command; rational economic choice versus irrational… More

Government and the People

– Wildavsky, Aaron. "Government and the People," Commentary Magazine, August 1973.
“We shall never learn what needs to be learned about the American political system until we understand not only what the system does to the people, but what the people do to the… More

Speaking Truth to Power: The Art and Craft of Policy Analysis

– Wildavsky, Aaron. Speaking Truth to Power: The Art and Craft of Policy Analysis. Boston: Little, Brown & Company, 1979.
Wildavsky attempts not only to describe what public policy is, but given societal changes in the last two decades, to account for its present status. To learn from the past in order to… More

Oh, Bring Back My Party to Me!

– Wildavsky, Aaron. "Oh, Bring Back My Party to Me!" Public Interest, Fall 1979.
When Betty Furness said (after a White House meeting with consumer groups) that no one ever talked to Lyndon Johnson like that, was she suggesting that Jimmy Carter lacks a presidential… More

Richer is Safer

– Wildavsky, Aaron. "Richer is Safer." Public Interest, Summer 1980.
The proverbial man from Mars, observing our safety efforts in the past decade, could not help but conclude that the youth of America were dropping like flies in the streets. Why else would… More

The Three Cultures: Explaining Anomalies in the American Welfare State

– Wildavsky, Aaron. "The Three Cultures: Explaining Anomalies in the American Welfare State." Public Interest, Fall 1982.
In the late 1940’s, at Brooklyn College, I became aware of a political anomaly: Some of my fellow student activists were neither capitalists nor socialists nor reformists.  Certainly… More

The Nursing Father: Moses as a Political Leader

– Wildavsky, Aaron. The Nursing Father: Moses as a Political Leader. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1984.
“In recent years there has emerged a new interest in using classic Jewish texts as sources for contemporary political understanding, reviving an ancient art that had fallen into… More

The Once and Future School of Public Policy

– Wildavsky, Aaron. "The Once and Future School of Public Policy," The Public Interest. Spring 1985.
“I have two partially complementary and partially opposed views. One is that schools of public policy as they now exist will continue much as they are. The other is that social… More

Cultural Theory

– Thompson, Michael, Richard Ellis, and Aaron Wildavsky. Cultural Theory. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1990.
Why do people want what they want? Why does one person see the world as a place to control, while another feels controlled by the world? A useful theory of culture, the authors contend,… More

Robert Bork and the Crime of Inequality

– Wildavsky, Aaron. "Robert Bork and the Crime of Inequality" Public Interest, Winter 1990.
Whereas other failed nominations to the Supreme Court have sunk from public view, the debate over Judge Robert Bork gains in intensity as if the state of the nation, and not merely the fate… More

The Rise of Radical Egalitarianism

– Wildavsky, Aaron. The Rise of Radical Egalitarianism. Washington, D.C.: American University Press, 1991.
“Aaron Wildavsky believes that what has always made America exceptional is the extraordinary belief that equal opportunity and equal conditions are compatible. His book begins with an… More

Craftways: On the Organization of Scholarly Work

– Wildavsky, Aaron. Craftways: On the Organization of Scholarly Work. New Jersey: Transaction Publishers, 1993.
“The one subject that serious students want most to know about, other than their specialty, is how academic life is lived and how scholarly work is carried out. Their curiosity is… More

Culture and Social Theory

– Wildavsky, Aaron. Culture and Social Theory. New Jersey: Transaction Books, 1998.
“Aaron Wildavsky, along with Mary Douglas, identified what they called grid-group theory. Wildavsky began calling this “cultural theory,” and applied it to an astounding… More

Budgeting and Governing

– Wildavsky, Aaron. Budgeting and Governing. New Jersey: Transaction Books, 2001.
“Aaron Wildavsky’s greatest concern, as expressed in his writings, is how people manage to live together. This concern may at first appear to have little to do with the study of… More

The New Politics of the Budgetary Process

– Wildavsky, Aaron and Naomi Caiden. The New Politics of the Budgetary Process. New York: Longman Classics, 2003.
“This text explains how the federal budget process has evolved and analyzes recent developments in key areas: entitlements, defense, deficit/surplus and reforms. Its critical and… More

Controlling Public Expenditure: The Theory of Expenditure Limitation

– Wildavsky, Aaron. "Controlling Public Expenditure: The Theory of Expenditure Limitation." OECD Journal on Budgeting. Vol. 2, No. 4, 2003.  
“What don’t I mean by expenditure limitation? This paper is not about why governments should choose to limit spending. If governments wish to increase spending, that is… More

Cultural Analysis: Politics, Public Law and Administration

– Wildavsky, Aaron. Cultural Analysis: Politics, Public Law, and Administration. New Jersey: Transaction Publishers, 2005.
“As a result of a lifetime of incomparably wide-ranging investigations, Aaron Wildavsky concluded that politics in the United States and elsewhere was a patterned activity, exhibiting… More

Moses as a Political Leader

– Wildavsky, Aaron. Moses as a Political Leader, Jerusalem, Shalem Press: 2005.
A new edition of Wildavsky’s fascinating interpretation of Moses’ political leadership, with a preface by Yoram Hazony. Allan Mittleman: “Wildavsky’s works ride from… More

Federalism & Political Culture

– Wildavsky, Aaron, ed., Brendan Swedlow, David Schleicher, and Daniel Elazar. Federalism and Political Culture. New Jersey: Transaction Books, 1997.  
“Aaron Wildavsky well understood that federalism is about freedom and diversity – not hierarchy and decentralization. His was an intensely normative concern with the promise of… More

Essays

Politics of the Budgetary Process

– Wildavsky, Aaron. Politics of the Budgetary Process. Boston: Little, Brown & Company, 1964.
“In this very readable book A. Wildavsky challenges traditional normative approaches to a theory of budgeting and proposes a political basis for understanding the budget process.… More

The Two Presidencies

– Wildavsky, Aaron. "The Two Presidencies," Trans-Action/Society, 4 (1966): 7-14.
“The United States has one president, but it has two presidencies; one presidency is for domestic affairs, and the other is concerned with defense and foreign policy. Since World War… More

PPBS: the Political Economy of Efficiency,

– Wildavsky, Aaron. "PBBS: The Political Economy of Efficiency," Public Interest, Summer 1967.
There was a day when the meaning of economic efficiency was reasonably dear. An objective met up with a technician. Efficiency consisted in meeting the objective at the lowest cost or in… More

The Empty Head Blues — Black Rebellion and White Reaction?

– Wildavsky, Aaron. "The Empty Head Blues - Black Rebellion and White Reaction?" Public Interest, Spring 1968.  
Liberals have been moaning those empty-head blues. They feel bad. They know the sky is about to fall in. But they can’t think of anything to do. Having been too sanguine and too… More

Does Planning Work?

– Wildavsky, Aaron. "Does Planning Work?" Public Interest Summer 1971.
The individual versus the state; freedom versus dictatorship; private enterprise versus state control; price systems versus hierarchical command; rational economic choice versus irrational… More

Government and the People

– Wildavsky, Aaron. "Government and the People," Commentary Magazine, August 1973.
“We shall never learn what needs to be learned about the American political system until we understand not only what the system does to the people, but what the people do to the… More

Speaking Truth to Power: The Art and Craft of Policy Analysis

– Wildavsky, Aaron. Speaking Truth to Power: The Art and Craft of Policy Analysis. Boston: Little, Brown & Company, 1979.
Wildavsky attempts not only to describe what public policy is, but given societal changes in the last two decades, to account for its present status. To learn from the past in order to… More

Oh, Bring Back My Party to Me!

– Wildavsky, Aaron. "Oh, Bring Back My Party to Me!" Public Interest, Fall 1979.
When Betty Furness said (after a White House meeting with consumer groups) that no one ever talked to Lyndon Johnson like that, was she suggesting that Jimmy Carter lacks a presidential… More

Richer is Safer

– Wildavsky, Aaron. "Richer is Safer." Public Interest, Summer 1980.
The proverbial man from Mars, observing our safety efforts in the past decade, could not help but conclude that the youth of America were dropping like flies in the streets. Why else would… More

The Three Cultures: Explaining Anomalies in the American Welfare State

– Wildavsky, Aaron. "The Three Cultures: Explaining Anomalies in the American Welfare State." Public Interest, Fall 1982.
In the late 1940’s, at Brooklyn College, I became aware of a political anomaly: Some of my fellow student activists were neither capitalists nor socialists nor reformists.  Certainly… More

The Nursing Father: Moses as a Political Leader

– Wildavsky, Aaron. The Nursing Father: Moses as a Political Leader. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1984.
“In recent years there has emerged a new interest in using classic Jewish texts as sources for contemporary political understanding, reviving an ancient art that had fallen into… More

The Once and Future School of Public Policy

– Wildavsky, Aaron. "The Once and Future School of Public Policy," The Public Interest. Spring 1985.
“I have two partially complementary and partially opposed views. One is that schools of public policy as they now exist will continue much as they are. The other is that social… More

Cultural Theory

– Thompson, Michael, Richard Ellis, and Aaron Wildavsky. Cultural Theory. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1990.
Why do people want what they want? Why does one person see the world as a place to control, while another feels controlled by the world? A useful theory of culture, the authors contend,… More

Robert Bork and the Crime of Inequality

– Wildavsky, Aaron. "Robert Bork and the Crime of Inequality" Public Interest, Winter 1990.
Whereas other failed nominations to the Supreme Court have sunk from public view, the debate over Judge Robert Bork gains in intensity as if the state of the nation, and not merely the fate… More

The Rise of Radical Egalitarianism

– Wildavsky, Aaron. The Rise of Radical Egalitarianism. Washington, D.C.: American University Press, 1991.
“Aaron Wildavsky believes that what has always made America exceptional is the extraordinary belief that equal opportunity and equal conditions are compatible. His book begins with an… More

Craftways: On the Organization of Scholarly Work

– Wildavsky, Aaron. Craftways: On the Organization of Scholarly Work. New Jersey: Transaction Publishers, 1993.
“The one subject that serious students want most to know about, other than their specialty, is how academic life is lived and how scholarly work is carried out. Their curiosity is… More

Culture and Social Theory

– Wildavsky, Aaron. Culture and Social Theory. New Jersey: Transaction Books, 1998.
“Aaron Wildavsky, along with Mary Douglas, identified what they called grid-group theory. Wildavsky began calling this “cultural theory,” and applied it to an astounding… More

Budgeting and Governing

– Wildavsky, Aaron. Budgeting and Governing. New Jersey: Transaction Books, 2001.
“Aaron Wildavsky’s greatest concern, as expressed in his writings, is how people manage to live together. This concern may at first appear to have little to do with the study of… More

The New Politics of the Budgetary Process

– Wildavsky, Aaron and Naomi Caiden. The New Politics of the Budgetary Process. New York: Longman Classics, 2003.
“This text explains how the federal budget process has evolved and analyzes recent developments in key areas: entitlements, defense, deficit/surplus and reforms. Its critical and… More

Controlling Public Expenditure: The Theory of Expenditure Limitation

– Wildavsky, Aaron. "Controlling Public Expenditure: The Theory of Expenditure Limitation." OECD Journal on Budgeting. Vol. 2, No. 4, 2003.  
“What don’t I mean by expenditure limitation? This paper is not about why governments should choose to limit spending. If governments wish to increase spending, that is… More

Cultural Analysis: Politics, Public Law and Administration

– Wildavsky, Aaron. Cultural Analysis: Politics, Public Law, and Administration. New Jersey: Transaction Publishers, 2005.
“As a result of a lifetime of incomparably wide-ranging investigations, Aaron Wildavsky concluded that politics in the United States and elsewhere was a patterned activity, exhibiting… More

Moses as a Political Leader

– Wildavsky, Aaron. Moses as a Political Leader, Jerusalem, Shalem Press: 2005.
A new edition of Wildavsky’s fascinating interpretation of Moses’ political leadership, with a preface by Yoram Hazony. Allan Mittleman: “Wildavsky’s works ride from… More

Federalism & Political Culture

– Wildavsky, Aaron, ed., Brendan Swedlow, David Schleicher, and Daniel Elazar. Federalism and Political Culture. New Jersey: Transaction Books, 1997.  
“Aaron Wildavsky well understood that federalism is about freedom and diversity – not hierarchy and decentralization. His was an intensely normative concern with the promise of… More

Commentary

Politics of the Budgetary Process

– Wildavsky, Aaron. Politics of the Budgetary Process. Boston: Little, Brown & Company, 1964.
“In this very readable book A. Wildavsky challenges traditional normative approaches to a theory of budgeting and proposes a political basis for understanding the budget process.… More

The Two Presidencies

– Wildavsky, Aaron. "The Two Presidencies," Trans-Action/Society, 4 (1966): 7-14.
“The United States has one president, but it has two presidencies; one presidency is for domestic affairs, and the other is concerned with defense and foreign policy. Since World War… More

PPBS: the Political Economy of Efficiency,

– Wildavsky, Aaron. "PBBS: The Political Economy of Efficiency," Public Interest, Summer 1967.
There was a day when the meaning of economic efficiency was reasonably dear. An objective met up with a technician. Efficiency consisted in meeting the objective at the lowest cost or in… More

The Empty Head Blues — Black Rebellion and White Reaction?

– Wildavsky, Aaron. "The Empty Head Blues - Black Rebellion and White Reaction?" Public Interest, Spring 1968.  
Liberals have been moaning those empty-head blues. They feel bad. They know the sky is about to fall in. But they can’t think of anything to do. Having been too sanguine and too… More

Does Planning Work?

– Wildavsky, Aaron. "Does Planning Work?" Public Interest Summer 1971.
The individual versus the state; freedom versus dictatorship; private enterprise versus state control; price systems versus hierarchical command; rational economic choice versus irrational… More

Government and the People

– Wildavsky, Aaron. "Government and the People," Commentary Magazine, August 1973.
“We shall never learn what needs to be learned about the American political system until we understand not only what the system does to the people, but what the people do to the… More

Speaking Truth to Power: The Art and Craft of Policy Analysis

– Wildavsky, Aaron. Speaking Truth to Power: The Art and Craft of Policy Analysis. Boston: Little, Brown & Company, 1979.
Wildavsky attempts not only to describe what public policy is, but given societal changes in the last two decades, to account for its present status. To learn from the past in order to… More

Oh, Bring Back My Party to Me!

– Wildavsky, Aaron. "Oh, Bring Back My Party to Me!" Public Interest, Fall 1979.
When Betty Furness said (after a White House meeting with consumer groups) that no one ever talked to Lyndon Johnson like that, was she suggesting that Jimmy Carter lacks a presidential… More

Richer is Safer

– Wildavsky, Aaron. "Richer is Safer." Public Interest, Summer 1980.
The proverbial man from Mars, observing our safety efforts in the past decade, could not help but conclude that the youth of America were dropping like flies in the streets. Why else would… More

The Three Cultures: Explaining Anomalies in the American Welfare State

– Wildavsky, Aaron. "The Three Cultures: Explaining Anomalies in the American Welfare State." Public Interest, Fall 1982.
In the late 1940’s, at Brooklyn College, I became aware of a political anomaly: Some of my fellow student activists were neither capitalists nor socialists nor reformists.  Certainly… More

The Nursing Father: Moses as a Political Leader

– Wildavsky, Aaron. The Nursing Father: Moses as a Political Leader. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1984.
“In recent years there has emerged a new interest in using classic Jewish texts as sources for contemporary political understanding, reviving an ancient art that had fallen into… More

The Once and Future School of Public Policy

– Wildavsky, Aaron. "The Once and Future School of Public Policy," The Public Interest. Spring 1985.
“I have two partially complementary and partially opposed views. One is that schools of public policy as they now exist will continue much as they are. The other is that social… More

Cultural Theory

– Thompson, Michael, Richard Ellis, and Aaron Wildavsky. Cultural Theory. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1990.
Why do people want what they want? Why does one person see the world as a place to control, while another feels controlled by the world? A useful theory of culture, the authors contend,… More

Robert Bork and the Crime of Inequality

– Wildavsky, Aaron. "Robert Bork and the Crime of Inequality" Public Interest, Winter 1990.
Whereas other failed nominations to the Supreme Court have sunk from public view, the debate over Judge Robert Bork gains in intensity as if the state of the nation, and not merely the fate… More

The Rise of Radical Egalitarianism

– Wildavsky, Aaron. The Rise of Radical Egalitarianism. Washington, D.C.: American University Press, 1991.
“Aaron Wildavsky believes that what has always made America exceptional is the extraordinary belief that equal opportunity and equal conditions are compatible. His book begins with an… More

Craftways: On the Organization of Scholarly Work

– Wildavsky, Aaron. Craftways: On the Organization of Scholarly Work. New Jersey: Transaction Publishers, 1993.
“The one subject that serious students want most to know about, other than their specialty, is how academic life is lived and how scholarly work is carried out. Their curiosity is… More

Culture and Social Theory

– Wildavsky, Aaron. Culture and Social Theory. New Jersey: Transaction Books, 1998.
“Aaron Wildavsky, along with Mary Douglas, identified what they called grid-group theory. Wildavsky began calling this “cultural theory,” and applied it to an astounding… More

Budgeting and Governing

– Wildavsky, Aaron. Budgeting and Governing. New Jersey: Transaction Books, 2001.
“Aaron Wildavsky’s greatest concern, as expressed in his writings, is how people manage to live together. This concern may at first appear to have little to do with the study of… More

The New Politics of the Budgetary Process

– Wildavsky, Aaron and Naomi Caiden. The New Politics of the Budgetary Process. New York: Longman Classics, 2003.
“This text explains how the federal budget process has evolved and analyzes recent developments in key areas: entitlements, defense, deficit/surplus and reforms. Its critical and… More

Controlling Public Expenditure: The Theory of Expenditure Limitation

– Wildavsky, Aaron. "Controlling Public Expenditure: The Theory of Expenditure Limitation." OECD Journal on Budgeting. Vol. 2, No. 4, 2003.  
“What don’t I mean by expenditure limitation? This paper is not about why governments should choose to limit spending. If governments wish to increase spending, that is… More

Cultural Analysis: Politics, Public Law and Administration

– Wildavsky, Aaron. Cultural Analysis: Politics, Public Law, and Administration. New Jersey: Transaction Publishers, 2005.
“As a result of a lifetime of incomparably wide-ranging investigations, Aaron Wildavsky concluded that politics in the United States and elsewhere was a patterned activity, exhibiting… More

Moses as a Political Leader

– Wildavsky, Aaron. Moses as a Political Leader, Jerusalem, Shalem Press: 2005.
A new edition of Wildavsky’s fascinating interpretation of Moses’ political leadership, with a preface by Yoram Hazony. Allan Mittleman: “Wildavsky’s works ride from… More

Federalism & Political Culture

– Wildavsky, Aaron, ed., Brendan Swedlow, David Schleicher, and Daniel Elazar. Federalism and Political Culture. New Jersey: Transaction Books, 1997.  
“Aaron Wildavsky well understood that federalism is about freedom and diversity – not hierarchy and decentralization. His was an intensely normative concern with the promise of… More

Multimedia

Politics of the Budgetary Process

– Wildavsky, Aaron. Politics of the Budgetary Process. Boston: Little, Brown & Company, 1964.
“In this very readable book A. Wildavsky challenges traditional normative approaches to a theory of budgeting and proposes a political basis for understanding the budget process.… More

The Two Presidencies

– Wildavsky, Aaron. "The Two Presidencies," Trans-Action/Society, 4 (1966): 7-14.
“The United States has one president, but it has two presidencies; one presidency is for domestic affairs, and the other is concerned with defense and foreign policy. Since World War… More

PPBS: the Political Economy of Efficiency,

– Wildavsky, Aaron. "PBBS: The Political Economy of Efficiency," Public Interest, Summer 1967.
There was a day when the meaning of economic efficiency was reasonably dear. An objective met up with a technician. Efficiency consisted in meeting the objective at the lowest cost or in… More

The Empty Head Blues — Black Rebellion and White Reaction?

– Wildavsky, Aaron. "The Empty Head Blues - Black Rebellion and White Reaction?" Public Interest, Spring 1968.  
Liberals have been moaning those empty-head blues. They feel bad. They know the sky is about to fall in. But they can’t think of anything to do. Having been too sanguine and too… More

Does Planning Work?

– Wildavsky, Aaron. "Does Planning Work?" Public Interest Summer 1971.
The individual versus the state; freedom versus dictatorship; private enterprise versus state control; price systems versus hierarchical command; rational economic choice versus irrational… More

Government and the People

– Wildavsky, Aaron. "Government and the People," Commentary Magazine, August 1973.
“We shall never learn what needs to be learned about the American political system until we understand not only what the system does to the people, but what the people do to the… More

Speaking Truth to Power: The Art and Craft of Policy Analysis

– Wildavsky, Aaron. Speaking Truth to Power: The Art and Craft of Policy Analysis. Boston: Little, Brown & Company, 1979.
Wildavsky attempts not only to describe what public policy is, but given societal changes in the last two decades, to account for its present status. To learn from the past in order to… More

Oh, Bring Back My Party to Me!

– Wildavsky, Aaron. "Oh, Bring Back My Party to Me!" Public Interest, Fall 1979.
When Betty Furness said (after a White House meeting with consumer groups) that no one ever talked to Lyndon Johnson like that, was she suggesting that Jimmy Carter lacks a presidential… More

Richer is Safer

– Wildavsky, Aaron. "Richer is Safer." Public Interest, Summer 1980.
The proverbial man from Mars, observing our safety efforts in the past decade, could not help but conclude that the youth of America were dropping like flies in the streets. Why else would… More

The Three Cultures: Explaining Anomalies in the American Welfare State

– Wildavsky, Aaron. "The Three Cultures: Explaining Anomalies in the American Welfare State." Public Interest, Fall 1982.
In the late 1940’s, at Brooklyn College, I became aware of a political anomaly: Some of my fellow student activists were neither capitalists nor socialists nor reformists.  Certainly… More

The Nursing Father: Moses as a Political Leader

– Wildavsky, Aaron. The Nursing Father: Moses as a Political Leader. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1984.
“In recent years there has emerged a new interest in using classic Jewish texts as sources for contemporary political understanding, reviving an ancient art that had fallen into… More

The Once and Future School of Public Policy

– Wildavsky, Aaron. "The Once and Future School of Public Policy," The Public Interest. Spring 1985.
“I have two partially complementary and partially opposed views. One is that schools of public policy as they now exist will continue much as they are. The other is that social… More

Cultural Theory

– Thompson, Michael, Richard Ellis, and Aaron Wildavsky. Cultural Theory. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1990.
Why do people want what they want? Why does one person see the world as a place to control, while another feels controlled by the world? A useful theory of culture, the authors contend,… More

Robert Bork and the Crime of Inequality

– Wildavsky, Aaron. "Robert Bork and the Crime of Inequality" Public Interest, Winter 1990.
Whereas other failed nominations to the Supreme Court have sunk from public view, the debate over Judge Robert Bork gains in intensity as if the state of the nation, and not merely the fate… More

The Rise of Radical Egalitarianism

– Wildavsky, Aaron. The Rise of Radical Egalitarianism. Washington, D.C.: American University Press, 1991.
“Aaron Wildavsky believes that what has always made America exceptional is the extraordinary belief that equal opportunity and equal conditions are compatible. His book begins with an… More

Craftways: On the Organization of Scholarly Work

– Wildavsky, Aaron. Craftways: On the Organization of Scholarly Work. New Jersey: Transaction Publishers, 1993.
“The one subject that serious students want most to know about, other than their specialty, is how academic life is lived and how scholarly work is carried out. Their curiosity is… More

Culture and Social Theory

– Wildavsky, Aaron. Culture and Social Theory. New Jersey: Transaction Books, 1998.
“Aaron Wildavsky, along with Mary Douglas, identified what they called grid-group theory. Wildavsky began calling this “cultural theory,” and applied it to an astounding… More

Budgeting and Governing

– Wildavsky, Aaron. Budgeting and Governing. New Jersey: Transaction Books, 2001.
“Aaron Wildavsky’s greatest concern, as expressed in his writings, is how people manage to live together. This concern may at first appear to have little to do with the study of… More

The New Politics of the Budgetary Process

– Wildavsky, Aaron and Naomi Caiden. The New Politics of the Budgetary Process. New York: Longman Classics, 2003.
“This text explains how the federal budget process has evolved and analyzes recent developments in key areas: entitlements, defense, deficit/surplus and reforms. Its critical and… More

Controlling Public Expenditure: The Theory of Expenditure Limitation

– Wildavsky, Aaron. "Controlling Public Expenditure: The Theory of Expenditure Limitation." OECD Journal on Budgeting. Vol. 2, No. 4, 2003.  
“What don’t I mean by expenditure limitation? This paper is not about why governments should choose to limit spending. If governments wish to increase spending, that is… More

Cultural Analysis: Politics, Public Law and Administration

– Wildavsky, Aaron. Cultural Analysis: Politics, Public Law, and Administration. New Jersey: Transaction Publishers, 2005.
“As a result of a lifetime of incomparably wide-ranging investigations, Aaron Wildavsky concluded that politics in the United States and elsewhere was a patterned activity, exhibiting… More

Moses as a Political Leader

– Wildavsky, Aaron. Moses as a Political Leader, Jerusalem, Shalem Press: 2005.
A new edition of Wildavsky’s fascinating interpretation of Moses’ political leadership, with a preface by Yoram Hazony. Allan Mittleman: “Wildavsky’s works ride from… More

Federalism & Political Culture

– Wildavsky, Aaron, ed., Brendan Swedlow, David Schleicher, and Daniel Elazar. Federalism and Political Culture. New Jersey: Transaction Books, 1997.  
“Aaron Wildavsky well understood that federalism is about freedom and diversity – not hierarchy and decentralization. His was an intensely normative concern with the promise of… More

Teaching

Politics of the Budgetary Process

– Wildavsky, Aaron. Politics of the Budgetary Process. Boston: Little, Brown & Company, 1964.
“In this very readable book A. Wildavsky challenges traditional normative approaches to a theory of budgeting and proposes a political basis for understanding the budget process.… More

The Two Presidencies

– Wildavsky, Aaron. "The Two Presidencies," Trans-Action/Society, 4 (1966): 7-14.
“The United States has one president, but it has two presidencies; one presidency is for domestic affairs, and the other is concerned with defense and foreign policy. Since World War… More

PPBS: the Political Economy of Efficiency,

– Wildavsky, Aaron. "PBBS: The Political Economy of Efficiency," Public Interest, Summer 1967.
There was a day when the meaning of economic efficiency was reasonably dear. An objective met up with a technician. Efficiency consisted in meeting the objective at the lowest cost or in… More

The Empty Head Blues — Black Rebellion and White Reaction?

– Wildavsky, Aaron. "The Empty Head Blues - Black Rebellion and White Reaction?" Public Interest, Spring 1968.  
Liberals have been moaning those empty-head blues. They feel bad. They know the sky is about to fall in. But they can’t think of anything to do. Having been too sanguine and too… More

Does Planning Work?

– Wildavsky, Aaron. "Does Planning Work?" Public Interest Summer 1971.
The individual versus the state; freedom versus dictatorship; private enterprise versus state control; price systems versus hierarchical command; rational economic choice versus irrational… More

Government and the People

– Wildavsky, Aaron. "Government and the People," Commentary Magazine, August 1973.
“We shall never learn what needs to be learned about the American political system until we understand not only what the system does to the people, but what the people do to the… More

Speaking Truth to Power: The Art and Craft of Policy Analysis

– Wildavsky, Aaron. Speaking Truth to Power: The Art and Craft of Policy Analysis. Boston: Little, Brown & Company, 1979.
Wildavsky attempts not only to describe what public policy is, but given societal changes in the last two decades, to account for its present status. To learn from the past in order to… More

Oh, Bring Back My Party to Me!

– Wildavsky, Aaron. "Oh, Bring Back My Party to Me!" Public Interest, Fall 1979.
When Betty Furness said (after a White House meeting with consumer groups) that no one ever talked to Lyndon Johnson like that, was she suggesting that Jimmy Carter lacks a presidential… More

Richer is Safer

– Wildavsky, Aaron. "Richer is Safer." Public Interest, Summer 1980.
The proverbial man from Mars, observing our safety efforts in the past decade, could not help but conclude that the youth of America were dropping like flies in the streets. Why else would… More

The Three Cultures: Explaining Anomalies in the American Welfare State

– Wildavsky, Aaron. "The Three Cultures: Explaining Anomalies in the American Welfare State." Public Interest, Fall 1982.
In the late 1940’s, at Brooklyn College, I became aware of a political anomaly: Some of my fellow student activists were neither capitalists nor socialists nor reformists.  Certainly… More

The Nursing Father: Moses as a Political Leader

– Wildavsky, Aaron. The Nursing Father: Moses as a Political Leader. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1984.
“In recent years there has emerged a new interest in using classic Jewish texts as sources for contemporary political understanding, reviving an ancient art that had fallen into… More

The Once and Future School of Public Policy

– Wildavsky, Aaron. "The Once and Future School of Public Policy," The Public Interest. Spring 1985.
“I have two partially complementary and partially opposed views. One is that schools of public policy as they now exist will continue much as they are. The other is that social… More

Cultural Theory

– Thompson, Michael, Richard Ellis, and Aaron Wildavsky. Cultural Theory. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1990.
Why do people want what they want? Why does one person see the world as a place to control, while another feels controlled by the world? A useful theory of culture, the authors contend,… More

Robert Bork and the Crime of Inequality

– Wildavsky, Aaron. "Robert Bork and the Crime of Inequality" Public Interest, Winter 1990.
Whereas other failed nominations to the Supreme Court have sunk from public view, the debate over Judge Robert Bork gains in intensity as if the state of the nation, and not merely the fate… More

The Rise of Radical Egalitarianism

– Wildavsky, Aaron. The Rise of Radical Egalitarianism. Washington, D.C.: American University Press, 1991.
“Aaron Wildavsky believes that what has always made America exceptional is the extraordinary belief that equal opportunity and equal conditions are compatible. His book begins with an… More

Craftways: On the Organization of Scholarly Work

– Wildavsky, Aaron. Craftways: On the Organization of Scholarly Work. New Jersey: Transaction Publishers, 1993.
“The one subject that serious students want most to know about, other than their specialty, is how academic life is lived and how scholarly work is carried out. Their curiosity is… More

Culture and Social Theory

– Wildavsky, Aaron. Culture and Social Theory. New Jersey: Transaction Books, 1998.
“Aaron Wildavsky, along with Mary Douglas, identified what they called grid-group theory. Wildavsky began calling this “cultural theory,” and applied it to an astounding… More

Budgeting and Governing

– Wildavsky, Aaron. Budgeting and Governing. New Jersey: Transaction Books, 2001.
“Aaron Wildavsky’s greatest concern, as expressed in his writings, is how people manage to live together. This concern may at first appear to have little to do with the study of… More

The New Politics of the Budgetary Process

– Wildavsky, Aaron and Naomi Caiden. The New Politics of the Budgetary Process. New York: Longman Classics, 2003.
“This text explains how the federal budget process has evolved and analyzes recent developments in key areas: entitlements, defense, deficit/surplus and reforms. Its critical and… More

Controlling Public Expenditure: The Theory of Expenditure Limitation

– Wildavsky, Aaron. "Controlling Public Expenditure: The Theory of Expenditure Limitation." OECD Journal on Budgeting. Vol. 2, No. 4, 2003.  
“What don’t I mean by expenditure limitation? This paper is not about why governments should choose to limit spending. If governments wish to increase spending, that is… More

Cultural Analysis: Politics, Public Law and Administration

– Wildavsky, Aaron. Cultural Analysis: Politics, Public Law, and Administration. New Jersey: Transaction Publishers, 2005.
“As a result of a lifetime of incomparably wide-ranging investigations, Aaron Wildavsky concluded that politics in the United States and elsewhere was a patterned activity, exhibiting… More

Moses as a Political Leader

– Wildavsky, Aaron. Moses as a Political Leader, Jerusalem, Shalem Press: 2005.
A new edition of Wildavsky’s fascinating interpretation of Moses’ political leadership, with a preface by Yoram Hazony. Allan Mittleman: “Wildavsky’s works ride from… More

Federalism & Political Culture

– Wildavsky, Aaron, ed., Brendan Swedlow, David Schleicher, and Daniel Elazar. Federalism and Political Culture. New Jersey: Transaction Books, 1997.  
“Aaron Wildavsky well understood that federalism is about freedom and diversity – not hierarchy and decentralization. His was an intensely normative concern with the promise of… More