Revolt against the onanes

Aaron Wildavsky's pioneering work on the poli tics of the budgetary process and of systems and cost benefit analysis has established him as one of our most creative thinkers in the relatively new field of public policy analysis.

But Professor Wildavsky is also much more - a democratic critic of the radical rhetoric of our age, which he sees as an essentially elitist "revolt against the masses." In this exciting book, consisting of twenty-six of his most important articles, public policy analysis and political crit icism merge to provide an original and convinc ing perspective on the American political system.

For it is Professor Wildavsky's intriguing thesis that politics cannot, in fact, be separated from rational choice; improving political institutions and improving public policy are the same thing. It is a theme which the exciting essays in this volume-whether they deal with public policy issues like the antiballistic missile, or guaranteed incomes, or political institutions like the presi dency or the Budget Bureau-richly illustrate.