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Culture Matters
Culture theory was the focal point of the late Aaron Wildavsky's teaching and research for the last decade of his life--a life that profoundly affected many fields of political science, from the study of the presidency to public budgeting. Original essays prepared in his honor here examine Wildavsky's areas of influence.
Culture and Social Theory
These essays use a common interpretive framework to show how economic and other concepts are socially constructed, how political philosophers and the workings of democracy can be understood, and how rational choice theories might be given wider application and greater discriminatory power. Aaron Wildavsky hoped that fellow social scientists would be persuaded of the unifying and integrating potential of what Mary Douglas called "grid-group theory" (which he further developed as "cultural theory") by seeing this explanatory tool used in so many different ways and with regard to such a variety of issues and questions.
The Art and Craft of Policy Analysis
The Art and Craft of Policy Analysis is a classic work of the Public Policy discipline. Wildavsky’s emphasis on the values involved in public policies, as well as the need to build political understandings about the nature of policy, are as important for 21st century policymaking as they were in 1979. B. Guy Peters’ critical introduction provides the reader with context for the book, its main themes and contemporary relevance, and offers a guide to understanding a complex but crucial text.
Cultural Theory
Taking their cue from the pioneering work of anthropologist Mary Douglas, the authors of "Cultural Theory" have created a typology of five ways of life-- egalitarianism, fatalism, individualism, hierarchy, and autonomy-- to serve as an analytic tool in the examination of people, culture, and politics. They then show how cultural theorists can develop large numbers of falsifiable propositions.
Budgeting and Governing
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 budgeting, but for Wildavsky budgeting made living together possible. Indeed, as he argues in Budgeting and Governing, now available in paperback, if you cannot budget, you cannot govern. Wildavsky wrote about budgeting because, in his words, "when a process involves power, authority, culture, consensus, and conflict, it captures a great deal of national political life." Wildavsky was interested in budgeting because of what it could tell us about the classic questions of politics--who gets what, how, and why?--and ult...
Cultural Analysis
As a result of a lifetime of incomparably wide-ranging investigations, Aaron Wildavsky argues that American politics, public law, and public administration are the contested terrain of rival, inescapable political cultures.
Risk and Culture
Can we know the risks we face, now or in the future? No, we cannot; but yes, we must act as if we do. Some dangers are unknown; others are known, but not by us because no one person can know everything. Most people cannot be aware of most dangers at most times. Hence, no one can calculate precisely the total risk to be faced. How, then, do people decide which risks to take and which to ignore? On what basis are certain dangers guarded against and others relegated to secondary status? This book explores how we decide what risks to take and which to ignore, both as individuals and as a culture.
Culture and Social Theory
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 array of subjects. The essays in this volume exemplify the theory's potential contributions to three seemingly disparate, but related, areas: the social construction of meaning, normative/analytic political philosophy, and a theory of rational choices. This book is the first in a series of Aaron Wildavsky's collected writings being published posthumously by Transaction. Wildavsky selected, sequenced, and grouped all but three of the essays included in Culture and Social Theory prior to his death. Some are presented here for t...
