Aaron Wildavsky believes that what has always made America exceptional is the extraordinary belief that equal opportunity and equal conditions are compatible. His book begins with an attempt to differentiate the alliance of individualists and egalitarians who combined under this belief nearly two centuries ago, but who now have come to a parting of the ways. He probes the consequences of this decline of exceptionalism in a discussion of the impact that the rising radical egalitarianism is currently having on American political life. The Bork affair, fear of technology, the inability of Democrats to elect Presidents, the bad-news syndrome that turns even events like the historical victories in Eastern Europe into somber affairs, and more are discussed at a popular level.Author Aaron Wildavsky is Professor of Political Science and Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of "Cultural Theory, Dilemmas of Presidential Leadership from Washington through Lincoln," and "The New Politics of the Budgetary Process."