Changing how we budget: Aaron Wildavsky's perspective

This article chronicles the analysis of budget reform initiatives by Aaron Wildavsky and his collaborators. Wildavsky's views remain relevant to contemporary debate about federal budget reform. Initiatives to control spending and improve the use of analysis in budgeting were central to Wildavsky's arguments. While he characterized budgeting as incremental he also favored some comprehensive changes through ‘radical incrementalism’. Wildavsky developed a behavioral theory of budgeting and believed that efforts to seek a normative theory were largely a waste of time. He offered reforms to control the deficit and reduce entitlement spending but understood the incentives that cause Congress and the executive to resist change.