{"id":{"repo_id":"uiuc","oai_identifier":"oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/71400"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/uiuc/oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/71400","repository":{"repo_id":"uiuc","name":"University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign","base_url":"https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh"},"display":{"title":"The Incremental Budgetary Theory Revisited: An Empirical Study of Congressional Appropriations","abstract":"There are two general theories that attempt to describe and explain the resource allocation process in the public sector: (1) the traditional (or rational) theory; and (2) the incremental theory. Through the work of Aaron Wildavsky and other empirical researchers, the incremental theory has received substantial, though not universal, support in the political science-public administration literature. This study closely examines the basis of the incremental theory and the methodology used to build and test the theory and raises two questions about the theory: (1) In focusing on the budgetary behavior of the legislature, is it appropriate to study total agency budgets when it is well known that legislative involvement goes well beyond agency totals? and (2) Can the methodology of regression analysis be used in the context of the incremental theory without giving some attention to an analysis of regression residuals?","abstract_html":"There are two general theories that attempt to describe and explain the resource allocation process in the public sector: (1) the traditional (or rational) theory; and (2) the incremental theory. Through the work of Aaron Wildavsky and other empirical researchers, the incremental theory has received substantial, though not universal, support in the political science-public administration literature. This study closely examines the basis of the incremental theory and the methodology used to build and test the theory and raises two questions about the theory: (1) In focusing on the budgetary behavior of the legislature, is it appropriate to study total agency budgets when it is well known that legislative involvement goes well beyond agency totals? and (2) Can the methodology of regression analysis be used in the context of the incremental theory without giving some attention to an analysis of regression residuals?","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Olson, David Richard"],"institution":"University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign","degree_name":"Ph.D.","degree_level":"Dissertation","degree_discipline":"Accountancy","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":[],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2014,"date_issued":"2014-12-16T06:41:19Z","date_published":"2014-12-16T06:41:19Z","updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:26:04Z","subjects":["Political Science, Public Administration"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["(UMI)AAI8711843"],"render_values":[{"text":"(UMI)AAI8711843","href":null,"code":true}]}]},"links":{"outbound_url":"http://hdl.handle.net/2142/71400","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Olson, David Richard"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2014-12-16T06:41:19Z","10000-01-01","1987"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["text"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Accountancy"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Dissertation"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Ph.D."]},{"key":"thesis:institution_name","label":"Thesis Institution Name","values":["University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Political Science, Public Administration"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["http://hdl.handle.net/2142/71400","(UMI)AAI8711843"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["There are two general theories that attempt to describe and explain the resource allocation process in the public sector: (1) the traditional (or rational) theory; and (2) the incremental theory. Through the work of Aaron Wildavsky and other empirical researchers, the incremental theory has received substantial, though not universal, support in the political science-public administration literature. This study closely examines the basis of the incremental theory and the methodology used to build and test the theory and raises two questions about the theory: (1) In focusing on the budgetary behavior of the legislature, is it appropriate to study total agency budgets when it is well known that legislative involvement goes well beyond agency totals? and (2) Can the methodology of regression analysis be used in the context of the incremental theory without giving some attention to an analysis of regression residuals?","Five Congressional appropriations subcommittees and a subset of 47 Federal bureau-agencies that had earlier formed the strongest case for incrementalism were studied during two carefully chosen four-year periods (1961-1964 and 1969-1972) where, according to the incremental theory, the important budgetary relationships could be expected to remain stable and therefore incremental. The basic incremental model where Congressional appropriations are a simple, linear function of executive budget requests was used to analyze three different levels of budgetary decision making: (1) subcommittee totals; (2) agency totals, similar to earlier work; and (3) "micro" level. In the case of the micro level decision making, a detailed analysis of regression residuals was also performed.","The results of the study confirm the work of earlier researchers that have questioned the basis of the incremental theory by showing that even during periods unaffected by political and economic shocks, the Congressional appropriations subcommittees make decisions and choices about programs and projects in a way that cannot be adequately described or explained by the incremental theory.","Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-16T06:41:19Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 8711843.pdf: 12491177 bytes, checksum: 5f86f468f191f68d31f601c9e3a1e272 (MD5) Previous issue date: 1987","Embargo set by: Seth Robbins for item 71566 Lift date: Forever Reason: Restricted to the U of I community idenfinitely during batch ingest of legacy ETDs","Restricted to the U of I community idenfinitely during batch ingest of legacy ETDs","U of I Only","318 p.","Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1987."]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["The Incremental Budgetary Theory Revisited: An Empirical Study of Congressional Appropriations"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:creator":["Olson, David Richard"],"dc:date":["2014-12-16T06:41:19Z","10000-01-01","1987"],"dc:description":["There are two general theories that attempt to describe and explain the resource allocation process in the public sector: (1) the traditional (or rational) theory; and (2) the incremental theory. Through the work of Aaron Wildavsky and other empirical researchers, the incremental theory has received substantial, though not universal, support in the political science-public administration literature. This study closely examines the basis of the incremental theory and the methodology used to build and test the theory and raises two questions about the theory: (1) In focusing on the budgetary behavior of the legislature, is it appropriate to study total agency budgets when it is well known that legislative involvement goes well beyond agency totals? and (2) Can the methodology of regression analysis be used in the context of the incremental theory without giving some attention to an analysis of regression residuals?","Five Congressional appropriations subcommittees and a subset of 47 Federal bureau-agencies that had earlier formed the strongest case for incrementalism were studied during two carefully chosen four-year periods (1961-1964 and 1969-1972) where, according to the incremental theory, the important budgetary relationships could be expected to remain stable and therefore incremental. The basic incremental model where Congressional appropriations are a simple, linear function of executive budget requests was used to analyze three different levels of budgetary decision making: (1) subcommittee totals; (2) agency totals, similar to earlier work; and (3) "micro" level. In the case of the micro level decision making, a detailed analysis of regression residuals was also performed.","The results of the study confirm the work of earlier researchers that have questioned the basis of the incremental theory by showing that even during periods unaffected by political and economic shocks, the Congressional appropriations subcommittees make decisions and choices about programs and projects in a way that cannot be adequately described or explained by the incremental theory.","Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-16T06:41:19Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 8711843.pdf: 12491177 bytes, checksum: 5f86f468f191f68d31f601c9e3a1e272 (MD5) Previous issue date: 1987","Embargo set by: Seth Robbins for item 71566 Lift date: Forever Reason: Restricted to the U of I community idenfinitely during batch ingest of legacy ETDs","Restricted to the U of I community idenfinitely during batch ingest of legacy ETDs","U of I Only","318 p.","Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1987."],"dc:identifier":["http://hdl.handle.net/2142/71400","(UMI)AAI8711843"],"dc:subject":["Political Science, Public Administration"],"dc:title":["The Incremental Budgetary Theory Revisited: An Empirical Study of Congressional Appropriations"],"dc:type":["text"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Accountancy"],"thesis:degree_level":["Dissertation"],"thesis:degree_name":["Ph.D."],"thesis:institution_name":["University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:26:04Z"}