Resultaten voor 'aaron wildavsky'

1. Nelson W. , Polsby
2. Aaron , Wildavsky
3. Steven E. , Schier

Presidential Elections

This classic text argues that the institutional rules of the presidential election process, in combination with the behavior of the mass electorate, structure the strategic choices faced by politicians. Thoroughly revised and updated, this 16th edition provides everything students need to know about presidential elections going into the 2024 cycle.

1. Nelson W. , Polsby
2. Aaron , Wildavsky
3. Steven E. , Schier

Presidential Elections

This classic text argues that the institutional rules of the presidential election process, in combination with the behavior of the mass electorate, structure the strategic choices faced by politicians. Thoroughly revised and updated, this 16th edition provides everything students need to know about presidential elections going into the 2024 cycle.

National Budgeting for Economic and Monetary Union

Although the need for fiscal coordination and for controlling national spending in particular have been widely justified, relatively little attention has been paid to identifying and analyzing concrete measures to make this feasible. Most studies on these aspects of the Economic and Monetary Union have been concerned with questions as to why the need exists for fiscal convergence and to what degree is it desirable. Attention has only recently been focused on examining what budgetary measures (rules, procedures, structures) can be taken by the Commission or finance ministries for European convergence.The objective of this book is to discuss and suggest alternative policy-option initiatives at EC and national levels encouraging convergent financial management behaviour. Analyses are focused on the following important questions: `What is the current capacity of EC and national governments to manage public spending? '; `What budgetary strategies are available to reduce deficits? '; `What should the role of the Commission be under these circumstances? '; `What is the Member States' responsibility for managing national budgets? '; `What budgetary norms and rules should be proposed and negotiated to guarantee convergence of integration? '; `What strategic and structural arrangements could facilitate integration? ', etc.

1. Aaron , Wildavsky

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 the first time. Wildavsky's cultural theory provides ways to organize and interpret the world.In the first section, he shows how social scientists, particularly economists and sociologists, apply the theory. Wildavsky argues that concepts such as externalities, public goods, altruism, and even risk and rape are tools of rival, ubiquitous cultures engaged in perpetual struggle with one another. The second section deals with cultural theory as a way to interpret the works of normative and analytic political philosophers, including Thomas Hobbes and John Stuart Mill, on competing human objectives. Wildavsky argues that particular types of interaction among a society's cultures are necessary for effective realization of basic concepts such as democracy. In the third section, Wildavsky applies cultural theory in conjunction with instrumental rationality, the former as a theory of preference formation, the latter as a device for realizing preferences efficiently. High-priority objectives, and thus the character of norms and rational action, shift across cultures. The world and its various elements comprise a complex, frequently changing, and thus ambiguous reality, nowhere more so than in the dynamic contours of the United States. For cultural theory, individualistic, hierarchical, and egalitarian interpretations of the world are the only ones capable of forming and sustaining institutions and related patterns of social relations that will support human social groups.Wildavsky's central objective is to strip away the camouflage and to reveal varying domains of social life as fields of cultural competition. Culture and Social Theory will be a necessary addition to the libraries of political scientists, economists, and policymakers, not to mention all those who admire Aaron Wildavsky and his work.

1. Michael , Thompson
2. Richard J , Ellis
3. Aaron , Wildavsky

Cultural Theory

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, should start with these questions, and the answers, given different historical conditions, should apply equally well to people of all times, places, and walks of life.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 examining people, culture, and politics. They then show how cultural theorists can develop large numbers of falsifiable propositions.Drawing on parables, poetry, case studies, fiction, and the Great Books, the authors illustrate how cultural biases and social relationships interact in particular ways to yield life patterns that are viable, sustainable, and ultimately, changeable under certain conditions. Figures throughout the book show the dynamic quality of these ways of life and specifically illustrate the role of surprise in effecting small- and large-scale change.The authors compare Cultural Theory with the thought of master social theorists from Montesquieu to Stinchcombe and then reanalyze the classic works in the political culture tradition from Almond and Verba to Pye. Demonstrating that there is more to social life than hierarchy and individualism, the authors offer evidence from earlier studies showing that the addition of egalitarianism and fatalism facilitates cross-national comparisons.

1. Aaron , Wildavsky

Searching for Safety

Nuclear power plants, new vaccines and drugs, pesticides designed to improve agricultural production, and a plethora of other technological advances hold great promise of improving the quality of human life, but also pose great risks to human well-being.