Gary L. Wamsley is public administration specialist and professor emeritus at

Virginia Tech The Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, commonly referred to as Virginia Tech (VT), is a Public university, public Land-grant college, land-grant research university with its main campus in Blacksburg, Virginia, United States ...

Center for Public Administration and Policy The Center for Public Administration and Policy (CPAP) is an academic department of Virginia Tech focused on public administration and public policy Public policy is an institutionalized proposal or a Group decision-making, decided set of elem ...

. He is perhaps best known as the coordinating editor of Refounding Public Administration, a work that followed from a well-known public administration paper called the Blacksburg Manifesto. He has also for many years edited the journal Administration & Society. He received his bachelor's degree and master's degree from the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school the ...

, and a Ph.D. from the

University of Pittsburgh The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The university is composed of seventeen undergraduate and graduate schools and colle ...

. Wamsley was a student of

Charles Perrow Charles Bryce Perrow (February 9, 1925 – November 12, 2019), or Chick Perrow was an American sociologist and a leading figure of organizational sociology. He spent most of his career at SUNY Stony Brook and Yale University as a professor of ...

and a co-author with Mayer Zald. As with many scholars of his generation in the field of public administration, he is deeply influenced by

Dwight Waldo Clifford Dwight Waldo (September 28, 1913 – October 27, 2000) was an American political science, political scientist and major figure in modern public administration. Waldo's career was often directed against a scientific/technical portrayal ...

. As a budget theorist, Wamsley's work built on a framework started by

Aaron Wildavsky Aaron Wildavsky (May 31, 1930 – September 4, 1993) was an American political scientist known for his pioneering work in public policy, government budgeting, and risk management. Early years A native of Brooklyn in New York, Wildavsky was the ...

. In recent years, Wamsley has discussed budgeting in terms of the sociology of

Erving Goffman Erving Goffman (11 June 1922 – 19 November 1982) was a Canadian-born American sociologist, social psychologist, and writer, considered by some "the most influential American sociologist of the twentieth century". In 2007, '' The Time ...

and used other innovative approaches to underscore the political and theatrical nature of budget formation in government.

References

American political scientists American sociologists Virginia Tech faculty University of California, Los Angeles alumni University of Pittsburgh alumni People from Blacksburg, Virginia Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American public administration scholars Place of birth missing (living people) {{US-sociologist-stub