Where was Aaron Wildavsky educated from 1953 to 1954?
Aaron Wildavsky Aaron Wildavsky ( May 31 , 1930 – September 4 , 1993 ) was an American political scientist known for his pioneering work in public policy , government budgeting , and risk management . Early years . A native of Brooklyn in New York , Wildavsky was the son of two Ukrainian Jewish immigrants . After graduating from Brooklyn College , he served in the U.S . Navy and then won a Fulbright Fellowship to the University of Sydney for 1954–55 . Wildavsky returned to the U.S . to attend graduate school at Yale University . His PhD dissertation , a study of the politics of the Dixon-Yates atomic energy controversy , was completed in 1958 . Career . Wildavsky taught at Oberlin College from 1958 until 1962 , then lived and worked in Washington D.C for a year before moving to the University of California at Berkeley where he worked as a professor of political science for the rest of his life . At Berkeley , he was chairman of the political science department ( 1966–1969 ) and founding dean of the Graduate School of Public Policy ( 1969–1977 ) . Wildavsky was president of the American Political Science Association for 1985–86 . He was also a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Public Administration . Wildavsky was a scholar on budgeting and budget theory . He is associated with the idea of incrementalism in budgeting , meaning that the most important predictor of a future political budget is the prior one ; not a rational economic or decision process undertaken by the state . His book Politics of the Budgetary Process was named by the American Society for Public Administration as the third most influential work in public administration in the last fifty years . In Searching for Safety ( 1988 ) , Wildavsky argued that trial and error , rather than the precautionary principle , is the best way to manage risks . He noted that rich , technologically advanced societies were the safest , as measured by life expectancy and quality of life . Precautionary approaches to approving new technology are irrational , he said , because they demand that we know whether something is safe before we can do the very tests that would demonstrate its safety or dangerousness . Furthermore , precaution eliminates the benefits of new technology along with the harms . He advocated enhancing societys capacity to cope with and adapt to the unexpected , rather than trying to prevent all catastrophes in advance . Wildavsky was a prolific author , writing or co-writing thirty-nine books and numerous journal articles , including important works on the budgetary process , policy analysis , political culture , foreign affairs , public administration , and comparative government . Five more books were published posthumously—bringing the total to forty-four . Wildavsky was the recipient of the 1996 University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award for Ideas Improving World Order , with Max Singer . Wildavsky was awarded multiple honorary degrees over the course of his life , including degrees from Yale University and the University of Bologna . He died of lung cancer on September 4 , 1993 , in Oakland , California . Managing risk . Wildavsky argued that a mixed strategy of anticipation and resilience is optimal for managing risk . Anticipation is beneficial , but if employed as the sole strategy the law of diminishing returns makes it unattractive , impractical , impossible and even counter productive ( it consumes resources better spent on resilience ) . We should accept to live with small accidents and mishaps and not try to prevent all future hazards . He argued that adding safety devices to nuclear power plants beyond a certain point would be detrimental to safety . This critique is a fundamental attack on the precautionary principle . Theory of dual presidency . During the Cold War , Wildavsky proposed The Dual Presidency Theory ( also sometimes referred to as the Two Presidencies Thesis ) . Influenced by the time period of 1946–1964 , the Dual Presidency Theory is based on the principle that there are two versions of the American President : one who is concerned with domestic policy and one concerned with foreign policy . Wildavsky claims that presidents would prefer to focus foremost on foreign policy because they are granted more traditional , constitutional , and statutory authority when compared to their domestic policy powers . Wildavsky argues that presidents have assumed a more active role with regard to foreign policy because they are able to act more quickly than the United States Congress when pursuing foreign policy . Also , a lack of interest groups active in foreign policy allows the president more discretion when making a decision . Select publications . - Dixon-Yates : A Study in Power Politics . 1962 . Yale University Press . - Politics of the Budgetary Process . 1964 . Little , Brown . - Presidential Elections : Strategies of American Electoral Politics . 1964 . Scribner . ( with Nelson Polsby ) . - The Two Presidencies . 1966 . Society - Implementation : How Great Expectations in Washington are Dashed in Oakland ; or , Why it’s Amazing that Federal Programs Work at All . 1973 . University of California Press . ( with Jeffrey L . Pressman ) . - Planning and Budgeting in Poor Countries . 1974 . Wiley . ( with Naomi Caiden ) . - The Private Government of Public Money : Community and Policy Inside British Politics . 1974 . Macmillan . ( with Hugh Heclo ) . - Budgeting : A Comparative Theory of Budgetary Processes . 1975 . Little , Brown . - Speaking Truth to Power : The Art and Craft of Policy Analysis . 1979 . Little , Brown . - The Politics of Mistrust : Estimating American Oil and Gas Resources . 1981 . Sage Publications . ( with Ellen Tenenbaum ) - Risk and Culture : An Essay on the Selection of Technical and Environmental Dangers . 1982 . University of California Press . ( with Mary Douglas as first author ) . - The Nursing Father : Moses as a Political Leader . 1984 . University of Alabama Press . - A History of Taxation and Expenditure in the Western World . 1986 . Simon & Schuster . ( with Carolyn Webber and Pat Albin ) . - Choosing Preferences by Constructing Institutions : A Cultural Theory of Preference Formation . American Political Science Review 81 ( 1 ) : 3–22 . - Searching for Safety . 1988 . Transaction Books . - The Deficit and the Public Interest : The Search for Responsible Budgeting in the 1980s . 1989 . University of California Press . ( with Joseph White ) . - Public Administration : The State of the Discipline . 1990 . Chatham House Publishers . ( edited with Naomi Lynn ) . - Cultural Theory . 1990 . Westview Press . ( with Michael Thompson and Richard Ellis ) . - The Rise of Radical Egalitarianism . 1991 . The American University Press . - But Is It True? : A Citizens Guide to Environmental Health and Safety Issues . 1995 . Harvard University Press . ( posthumous )