The budget process as complex civic space - Wildavsky and radical incrementalism

In recent years, there has been a growing interest in the late Aaron Wildavsky's pluralist cultural and political theory. Wildavsky, who is an icon in the policy literature of American public administration, has often been at odds with the rational/linear paradigm that dominated the held of public policy. His work, Which has found a new home in complexity theory, spans several disciplines. Yet, the greatest value of Wildavsky's early systems thinking, including his theory of radical incrementalism, may be that it provides both a theoretical base and ethical reasoning with which to meaningfully discuss the possibilities of complexity theory as a new paradigm for governing.