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Charles Lindblom and Aaron Wildavsky

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 January 2009

Extract

Charles Lindblom and Aaron Wildavsky are both prolific writers, so out of necessity a relatively brief review of their work would have to be either very selective as to the themes dealt with or quite superficial in its treatment of their many contributions to contemporary social science. I have essentially adhered to the latter strategy in this article. Any reader who expects an in-depth analysis and a critical appraisal of, for example, incrementalism will be disappointed. What I oner instead is a first acquaintance with all the major themes in the scholarly production of Lindblom and Wildavsky and also with the critiques they have provoked.

Type
Review Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1981

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References

1 Lindblom, Charles E., Unions and Capitalism (New Haven, Conn.: Vale University Press, 1949).Google Scholar

2 Dahl, Robert A. and Lindblom, Charles E., Politics, Economics and Welfare: Planning and Politico-Economic Systems Resolved into Basic Social Processes (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1953Google Scholar; new edition, with a new Preface by the authors, 1976).

3 Lindblom, Charles E., ‘The Science of “Muddling Through”’, Public Administration Review, XIX (1959), 7988.CrossRefGoogle Scholar Among the other articles are: ‘Policy Analysis’, American Economic Review, LXVIII (1958), 298312Google Scholar, and with Hirschman, Albert O., ‘Economic Development, Research and Development, Policy Making: Some Converging Views’, Behavioral Science, VII (1962), 211–22.Google Scholar

4 Braybrooke, David and Lindblom, Charles E., A Strategy of Decision: Policy Evaluation as a Social Process (New York: Free Press, 1963)Google Scholar; Lindblom, Charles E., The Intelligence of Democracy: Decision Making Through Mutuai Adjustment (New York: Free Press, 1965).Google Scholar

5 Lindblom, Charles E., The Policy-Making Process (Engkwood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1968; 2nd edn., revised, 1980).Google Scholar

6 Lindblom also worked for the State Department in the mid-sixties.

7 Lindblom, Charles E., Politics and Markets: The World's Political-Economic Systems (New York: Basic Books, 1977).Google Scholar

8 Lindblom, Charles E. and Cohen, David K., Usable Knowledge: Social Science and Social Problem Solving (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1979).Google Scholar

9 Lindblom, Charles E., ‘Still Muddling, Not Yet Through’, Public Administration Review, IXL (1979), 517–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

10 See fn. 5 above.

11 Wildavsky, Aaron, Dixon-Yates: A Study in Power Politics (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1962)Google Scholar, and Leadership in a Small Town (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Bedminster Press, 1964).Google Scholar

12 Wildavsky, Aaron, The Politics of the Budgetary Process (Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown, 1974Google Scholar; revised editions in 1974 and 1978). For example, in a survey of members of the American Political Science Association who also occupied government positions it was the most frequently mentioned book for being ‘helpful’ in their work. See Political Science Utilization Directory (Urbana: University of Illinois, Policy Studies Organization, 1975), p. 7.Google Scholar

13 Wildavsky, , The Politics of the Budgetary Process, p. 3.Google Scholar

14 Davis, Otto, Dempster, Michael and Wildavsky, Aaron, ‘A Theory of the Budgetary Process’, American Political Science Review, LX (1966), 529–47CrossRefGoogle Scholar; also ‘On the Process of Budgeting: An Empirical Study of Congressional Appropriation’, in Tullock, Gordon, ed., Papers on Non-Market Decision Making (Charlottesville: Thomas Jefferson Center for Political Economy, 1966), 63132Google Scholar, and ‘On the Process of Budgeting II: an Empirical Study of Congressional Appropriations’, in Byrne, R. F. et al. , eds., Studies in Budgeting (Amsterdam: North-Holland, 1971), 292375.Google Scholar

15 Davis, Otto, Dempster, Michael and Wildavsky, Aaron, ‘Towards a Predictive Theory of Government Expenditure: US Domestic Appropriations’, British Journal of Political Science, IV (1974), 419–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

16 Dempster, M. A. H. and Wildavsky, Aaron, ‘On Change: Or, There Is No Magic Size for an Increment’, Political Studies, XXVII (1979), 371–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar What may be the definitive work by these authors is scheduled for publication in 1981, The Political Economy of Public Spending.

17 Nienaber, Jeanne and Wildavsky, Aaron, The Budgeting and Evaluation of Federal Recreation Programs, or Money Doesn't Grow on Trees (New York: Basic Books, 1973)Google Scholar; Caiden, Naomi and Wildavsky, Aaron, Planning and Budgeting in Poor Countries (New York: Wiley, 1974)Google Scholar; Heclo, Hugh and Wildavsky, Aaron, The Private Government of Public Money (London: Macmillan, 1974; 2nd edn. 1980)Google Scholar; Wildavsky, Aaron, Budgeting: A Comparative Theory of Budgetary Processes (Boston: Little, Brown, 1975)Google Scholar; Dempster, M. A. H. and Wildavsky, Aaron, The Political Economy of Public Spending (forthcoming, 1981).Google Scholar

18 See, for example, Weiner, Sanford and Wildavsky, Aaron, ‘The Prophylactic Presidency’, Public Interest, LII (1978), 319.Google Scholar Wildavsky has also edited volumes on the presidency, e.g. Perspectives on the Presidency (Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown, 1975).Google Scholar

19 Wildavsky, Aaron, Speaking Truth to Power: The Art and Craft of Policy Analysis (Boston, Mass: Little, Brown, 1979)Google Scholar; several substantive analyses are included in the book.

20 Pressman, Jeffrey L. and Wildavsky, Aaron B., Implementation: How Great Expectations in Washington Are Dashed in Oakland: Or, Why It's Amazing that Federal Programs Work at All, This Being a Saga of the Economic Development Administration as Told by Two Sympathetic Observers Who Seek to Build Morals on a Foundation of Ruined Hopes (Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press, 1973; 2nd edn., 1979).Google Scholar

21 An article on risk assessment, ‘A Radical Approach to Risk Assessment’ will soon be published in Public Interest, and there is a forthcoming book on the topic written with the English anthropologist Mary Douglas. On the second topic, see Wildavsky, Aaron, How to Limit Government Spending (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1980)Google Scholar, where the author proposes a constitutional amendment in order to limit the pace of public sector growth to that of GNP.

22 Dahl, and Lindblom, , Politics, Economics and Welfare (1976 edn), pp. 83–5.Google Scholar

23 Braybrooke, and Lindblom, , A Strategy of Decision (hereafter cited in 1970 paperback edition), pp. 23, 82.Google Scholar

24 A Strategy of Decision, pp. 4757.Google Scholar

25 A Strategy of Decision, Chap. 5.

26 Lindblom, , The Intelligence of Democracy, p. 144.Google Scholar

27 The Intelligence of Democracy, pp. 146f.Google Scholar; also A Strategy of Decision, pp. 97f.Google Scholar

28 The Intelligence of Democracy, p. 147.Google Scholar

29 A Strategy of Decision, pp. 140, 141.Google Scholar

30 The Intelligence of Democracy, p. 3.Google Scholar

31 The Intelligence of Democracy, p. 10.Google Scholar

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34 ‘Muddling Through – “Science” or Inertia?’, p. 154.Google Scholar

35 See, for example, Dror, Yehezkel, Public Policymaking Reexamined (Scranton, N.J.: Chandler, 1968).Google Scholar

36 Lindblom, Charles E., ‘Contexts for Change and Strategy: A Reply’, Public Administration Review, XXIV (1964), 157–8CrossRefGoogle Scholar. See also Braybrooke, and Lindblom, , A Strategy of Decision, Chap. 4.Google Scholar

37 Etzioni, Amitai, The Active Society: A Theory of Societal and Political Processes (New York: Free Press, 1968), p. 295.Google Scholar

38 Etzioni, , The Active Society, 271ff.Google Scholar; see also Arrow, Kenneth's review of A Strategy of Decision, in Political Science Quarterly, LXXIX (1964), p. 585.Google Scholar

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40 Etzioni, , The Active Society, p. 288.Google Scholar

41 Etzioni, , The Active Society, p. 290.Google Scholar

42 Goodin, Robert and Waldner, limar, ‘Thinking Big, Thinking Small, and Not Thinking at All’, Public Policy, XXVII (1979), 124.Google Scholar

43 Gershuny, J. I., ‘Policy-making Rationality: A Reformulation’, Policy Sciences, IX (1978), 295316.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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46 ‘Still Muddling, Not Yet Through’, p. 520.Google Scholar

47 ‘Still Muddling, Not Yet Through’, p. 523.Google Scholar

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51 The Politics of the Budgetary Process, pp. 13, 15.Google Scholar

52 The Politics of the Budgetary Process, p. 131.Google Scholar

53 The Politics of the Budgetary Process, p. 179.Google Scholar

54 See, for example, Wildavsky, Aaron, ‘The Political Economy of Efficiency: Cost-Benefit Analysis, Systems Analysis, and Program Budgeting’, Public Administration Review, XXVI (1966), 292310CrossRefGoogle Scholar; also the 1974 and 1979 editions of The Politics of the Budgetary Process.

55 Davis, , Dempster, and Wildavsky, , ‘A Theory of the Budgetary Process’, p. 543.Google Scholar

56 Davis, , Dempster, and Wildavsky, , ‘Towards a Predictive Theory of Government Expenditure: US Domestic Appropriations’, p. 452.Google Scholar

57 Dempster, and Wildavsky, , ‘On Change: Or, There Is No Magic Size for an Increment’, p. 382.Google Scholar

58 Natchez, Peter B. and Bupp, Irvin C., ‘Policy and Priority in the Budgetary Process’, American Political Science Review, LXVII (1973), 951–63, p. 963.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

59 Dempster, and Wildavsky, , ‘On Change: Or, There Is No Magic Size for an Increment’, p. 372.Google Scholar

60 Lindblom, , Politics and Markets, p. ix.Google Scholar

61 Politics and Markets, Part I.Google Scholar

62 Politics and Markets, Part II.Google Scholar

63 Politics and Markets, p. ix.Google Scholar

64 Politics and Markets, p. 233.Google Scholar

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68 Politics and Markets, pp. 173, 175.Google Scholar

69 Politics and Markets, p. 176.Google Scholar

70 Politics and Markets, pp. 193f.Google Scholar

71 Politics and Markets, p. 202.Google Scholar

72 Politics and Markets, p. 230.Google Scholar

73 Wildavsky, Aaron, ‘Changing Forward Versus Changing Back’, Yale Law Journal, LXXXVIII (1978), 217–34, p. 218.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

74 ‘Changing Forward Versus Changing Back’, p. 219.Google Scholar

75 ‘Changing Forward Versus Changing Back’, p. 227.Google Scholar

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77 ‘Changing Forward Versus Changing Back’, p. 230.Google Scholar

78 ‘Changing Forward Versus Changing Back’, p. 231.Google Scholar

79 ‘Changing Forward Versus Changing Back’, pp. 232f.Google Scholar

80 ‘Changing Forward Versus Changing Back’, p. 234.Google Scholar

81 Anderson, Charles W., ‘The Political Economy of Charles E. Lindblom’, American Political Science Review, LXXII (1978), p. 1013.Google Scholar

82 For the best introduction to the current debate among political scientists, see Schmitter, Philippe C. and Lehmbruch, Gerhard, eds., Trends Toward Corporatist Intermediation (London: Sage, 1979).Google Scholar

83 Walzer, Michael, ‘Must Democracy Be Capitalist?’, The New York Review of Books, 20 07 1978.Google Scholar

84 Wildavsky, , Speaking Truth to Power, pp. 2, 410.Google Scholar

85 Speaking Truth to Power, pp. 15, 389.Google Scholar

86 Speaking Truth to Power, pp. 6, 9, 16, 413, 13.Google Scholar

87 Speaking Truth to Power, pp. 386, 387.Google Scholar

88 Speaking Truth to Power, especially p. 17Google Scholar – but the entire book is organized on the basis of these concepts.

89 Speaking Truth to Power, pp. 25, 174.Google Scholar

90 Speaking Truth to Power, pp. 116, 17, 124.Google Scholar

91 Speaking Truth to Power, p. 206.Google Scholar

92 Speaking Truth to Power, p. 37.Google Scholar

93 Speaking Truth to Power, pp. 389, 392.Google Scholar

94 Speaking Truth to Power, pp. 42, 274ff.Google Scholar

95 Speaking Truth to Power, pp. 255, 278.Google Scholar

96 Speaking Truth to Power, p. 143.Google Scholar

97 Speaking Truth to Power, p. 352.Google Scholar

98 As cited in Meltsner, Arnold, Policy Analysts in the Bureaucracy (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1976), p. 2.Google Scholar

99 See especially Politics and Markets, Chaps. 19 and 22.Google Scholar

100 Very recently, Wildavsky has addressed the problem of knowledge utilization more explicitly than before; see Knott, Jack and Wildavsky, Aaron, ‘If Dissemination Is the Solution, What Is the Problem?’, Knowledge, 1 (1980), 537–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

101 Lindblom, and Cohen, , Usable Knowledge, pp. 90f. and Chap. 6.Google Scholar

102 Wildavsky, , Speaking Truth to Power, p. 1.Google Scholar

103 Anderson, , ‘The Political Economy of Charles E. Lindblom’, p. 1012.Google Scholar

104 Lindblom, , Politics and Markets, pp. 248f.Google Scholar; generally Chaps. 19 and 22.