If Culture and Social Theory becomes unavailable... for any reason, it can also be obtained from the publisher, Transaction, or, in Europe, from the distributor, Eurospan Ltd.

These essays use a common interpretive framework to show how economic and other concepts are socially constructed, how political philosophers and the workings of democracy can be understood, and how rational choice theories might be given wider application and greater discriminatory power. Aaron Wildavsky hoped that fellow social scientists would be persuaded of the unifying and integrating potential of what Mary Douglas called "grid-group theory"(which he further developed as "cultural theory") by seeing this explanatory tool used in so many different ways and with regard to such a variety of issues and questions. Wildavsky selected, grouped, and sequenced all but three of the essays in Culture and Social Theory prior to his death, including four never-before-published pieces. The volume is the first in a series of Wildavsky's collected writings being published posthumously[the second is Federalism and Political Culture, also available from Amazon]. In the first section, Wildavsky argues that concepts such as externalities, public goods, altruism, and even risk and rape, are constructs of rival, ubiquitious societal subcultures engaged in a perpetual interpretive and political struggle with one another. In the second section, he shows how his own cultural constructs and concepts can be used to understand the competing human objectives of normative and analytic political philosophers, including Thomas Hobbes and John Stuart Mill. In this section, Wildavsky also takes a turn at political philosophy himself, using his theory to characterize the societal bases of democracy and to argue that democratic stability and longevity depend on a particular mixture of his subcultures. In the third section, Wildavsky suggests how his cultural ideas might be combined with those of rational choice theorists by adding a theory of preference formation and ultimate objectives to their theories of efficient preference realization and instrumental rationality. Concepts such as "self-inte! rest" and "the prisoners' dilemma," he maintains, can be given greater explanatory power and empirical purchase when placed under his cultural constraints. In essays written with one of the editors, he shows the cultural conditions under which participation in political violence becomes individually rational and how cultural commitments lead to voting stability and the distinctiveness of party ideologies, thereby suggesting a solution to two paradoxes created by spatial theories of voting.

Federalism and Political Culture is a collection of Aaron Wildavsky's essays on federalism over the latter part of his career. It is the second in a series of his posthumous collected writings[the first being Culture and Social Theory, also available from Amazon]. Federalism and Political Culture is not a conventional collection on comparative federal systems, but deals with what federalism means, how it should work, and how it has been abused by those in power who protested their commitment to federal principles and practices but acted otherwise. Wildavsky's analyses concentrate mainly on American federalism after the Great Society of the 1960s, which brought major changes to the American federal system. The essays trace the progress of his thought as he first argues that true federalism is noncentralization, then to federalism as competition, and then combines both in reasserting that real federalism is possible only in confederation. For Wildavsky, saving the American federal system meant saving American liberty, making the world "safe for diversity," and thereby resolving the major political and ideological tensions of America at the close of the century.

Singer and Wildavsky argue that for the first time in history the major world powers share a commitment to democracy. By working together, they eventually will encourage other nations toward democracy and, ultimately, peace.

The authors argue that the world's superpowers have mutual interests in the political and economic success of democracy worldwide. These countries should now undertake a democratic, multinational effort to draw other countries into this "zone of peace."

They suggest establishing a United Nations Democratic Caucus through which democratic nations can, by majority rule, agree on issues of international significance. The economic development opportunities that stem from this cooperation eventually will attract non-democratic nations, who currently reside in what the authors call "zones of turmoil."

Singer and Wildavsky also propose a substantial increase in foreign assistance (half reserved for humanitarian emergencies) and limits on arms transfers to non-democratic states.

In 1996, this book won the $150,000 Grawemeyer Award for Ideas Improving World Order, an international prize administered by the University of Louisville's Department of Political Science.

Pressman and Wildavsky does an excellent job pointing out the many obstacles that can occur with policy implementation. Far too often, policy-makers create policy without giving much thought to the implementation. In reality, the way policy is implemented actually establishes the policy.

In this collection of essays in honor of Professor Aaron Wildavsky you may found and interest approach the the cultural theory. Eventhough it is a very good compilation of about the relationship among culture and politics, it lacks of the relation culture-development, which must be seen as the forgotten piece in the definition of development models and theories in the next century. However this is a must read book for every political science student and for political scientis, politicians and academicians. but it need to be more developed the relation culture-development in order to understand why some nation develop better than others.