The Incremental Budgetary Theory Revisited: An Empirical Study of Congressional Appropriations
type: CreativeWork
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?
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?
author: Olson, David Richard
keywords: Political Science, Public Administration
date published: 2014-12-16T06:41:19Z
date modified: 2026-07-22T22:26:04Z
provider: University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: http://hdl.handle.net/2142/71400