Aaron Wildavsky (1930–1993)

I have liked other books by Aaron Wildavsky, but this one really fell a long way off the mark. It contains six essays on federalism, but their topic is not as general as the title indicates. The essays are very strongly tied to an exclusively American political debate which is of very little interest to foreigners. I even found it hard to understand what the author meant in most of these essays, especially the one on fruitcakes and birthday cakes which was just indecipherable. The last essay about the origins of the American federal system was by far the most interesting one, but it should have been expanded to a book-length treatment to really be informative.… (mehr)

This book wasn't quite what I expected. First of all it's a collection of various papers that aren't linked together in any meaningful way. Some longer passages have even been copied directly from one paper to another. Most chapters focus on the American budgetary process in some detail, although there are other chapters where poor countries and the European Community take center stage. The author is at his best when he describes budget processes in general terms, especially in chapter 8. He also presents a "cultural theory" of budgeting, but this seemed like nothing more than an arbitrary classification system to me, so I couldn't quite see its value. I liked the author's style and I will probably read more of his works, but they will have to be book-length treatments of general questions so I can avoid details that would only interest American readers.… (mehr)