Aaron B. Wildavsky (1930–1993) was a Research Fellow and founding member of the Board of Advisors at the Independent Institute, Class of 1940 Professor of Political Science and Public Policy and Founding Dean of the Graduate School of Public Policy at the University of California Berkeley, and President of the California Association of Scholars. He received his Ph.D. in political science from Yale University.
He was President of the American Political Science Association and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Public Administration.
Professor Wildavsky's many books include Dixon-Yates: A Study in Power Politics, Politics of the Budgetary Process, Presidential Elections: Strategies of American Electoral Politics (with Nelson Polsby), Implementation: How Great Expectations in Washington are Dashed in Oakland; or, Why it’s Amazing that Federal Programs Work at All, Planning and Budgeting in Poor Countries, The Private Government of Public Money: Community and Policy Inside British Politics (with Hugh Heclo), Budgeting: A Comparative Theory of Budgetary Processes, Speaking Truth to Power: The Art and Craft of Policy Analysis, The Politics of Mistrust: Estimating American Oil and Gas Resources (with Ellen Tenenbaum), Risk and Culture: An Essay on the Selection of Technical and Environmental Dangers (with Mary Douglas), The Nursing Father: Moses as a Political Leader, A History of Taxation and Expenditure in the Western World (with Carolyn Webber and Pat Albin), Searching for Safety, The Deficit and the Public Interest: The Search for Responsible Budgeting in the 1980s, Public Administration: The State of the Discipline. 1990. Chatham House Publishers (edited with Naomi Lynn), Cultural Theory (with Michael Thompson and Richard Ellis), The Rise of Radical Egalitarianism, and But Is It True?: A Citizen's Guide to Environmental Health and Safety Issues.
