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The Intelligence of Democracy: Decision Making Through Mutual Adjustment. By Charles E. Lindblom. (New York: The Free Press, 1965. Pp. 335. $7.95.) - The Policy-Making Process. By Charles E. Lindblom. (Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1908. Pp. 118. $2.25.)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2014

Enid C. B. Schoettle
Enid C. B. Schoettle*
Affiliation:
University of Minnesota
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Type
Book Reviews
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 64 , Issue 4 , December 1970 , pp. 1268 - 1272
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1970

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References

1 Braybrooke, D. and Lindblom, C. E., A Strategy of Decision (New York, Free Press, 1963)Google Scholar.

2 According to the strategy of disjointed incrementalism, policy-makers compare and evaluate only increments of policies at the margin. They consider a restricted number of policy alternatives and consequences for any given policy alternative. They engage in constant readjustment of ends and means, returning frequently, or serially, to the same problem. Finally, they concentrate on remedial changes in social ills rather than on the pursuit of a well-defined future state (pp. 143–8).

3 The synoptic method, by Lindblom's definition, is a comprehensive method of decision-making which requires: identification and ordering of the objectives and values being sought; a comprehensive survey of alternative means of achieving those values; an exhausive examination of the consequences of each alternative; and, finally, the choice of an alternative policy that will achieve a maximum, or at least an acceptable amount of the values sought (pp. 137–8).

4 Schultze, C. L., The Politics and Economics of Public Spending (Washington, D.C., The Brookings Institution, 1968), pp. 74–5Google Scholar.

5 Ibid., p. 17.

6 Ibid., pp. 63–4.

7 Pfeffer, R. M. (ed.), No More Vietnam? (New York, Harper and Row, 1968), pp. 107–8Google Scholar.

8 See Quade, E. S. (ed.), Analysis for Military Decisions (Chicago, Rand McNally and Co., 1964)Google Scholar, Chap. 3.

9 See Schulze, op. cit., p. 37. But see Lindblom, C. F., The Policy-Making Process (Englewood Cliffs, N.J., Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1968), p. 27 Google Scholar.

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