ABSTRACT
The presidency is a minority phenomenon, and the American presidency is even a deviant case among presidencies. Even though focusing on Washington, D.C., aptly described as a “small town global in impact,” The Politics of the Budgetary Process, first published when Aaron was thirty-four, has been an international landmark because it challenged received ideas by showing that the budgeting process was as much about politics than about money. Aaron Wildavsky was abnormal in the best sense of the word, for whatever the subject at hand, he always treated it in a way that sought to transcend limitations of place in order to spell its broader implications. Although Aaron was very much attached to the Bay area, he frequently voyaged from there to study different societies and cultures. The first book Aaron Wildavsky ever wrote was about an event not only buried in the past but also on the other side of the earth, the 1926 Australian Referendum.
