incrementalism

incrementalism, theory of public policy making, according to which policies result from a process of interaction and mutual adaptation among a multiplicity of actors advocating different values, representing different interests, and possessing different information.

Incrementalism and the ideal of rational decision making

Incrementalism was first developed in the 1950s by the American political scientist Charles E. Lindblom in response to the then-prevalent conception of policy making as a process of rational analysis culminating in a value-maximizing decision. Incrementalism emphasizes the plurality of actors involved in the policy-making process and predicts that policy makers will build on past policies, focusing on incremental rather than wholesale changes. Incrementalism has been fruitfully applied to explain domestic policy making, foreign policy making, and public budgeting.

Lindblom regarded rational decision making as an unattainable ideal. To function properly, rational-comprehensive decision making must satisfy two conditions that are unlikely to be met for most issues: agreement on objectives and a knowledge base sufficient to permit accurate prediction of consequences associated with available alternatives. Where these conditions are unmet (and they will be unmet, according to Lindblom, for most policy issues), the rational method provides no guidance whatsoever for policy makers. Incrementalism circumvents these problems, producing defensible policies where the rational method is paralyzed.

Incrementalism emphasizes the amelioration of concrete problems rather than the pursuit of abstract ideals such as social justice. Affected publics bring problems to government through a process Lindblom termed the social fragmentation of analysis. No single actor possesses information sufficient to make a rational policy decision, and problems are often addressed without ever being fully defined.

Because limitations on both time and information preclude examination of more than a few options, policy makers typically focus on alternatives differing only marginally from previous policies. This narrow focus confines attention to options that are well understood and politically feasible.

In practice, policy makers do not identify objectives and then examine alternative means, as called for by the rational ideal. To the contrary, means and ends are typically considered simultaneously, inasmuch as different policy alternatives represent different trade-offs among contending values.

Incremental outcomes are virtually inevitable, given the need to bargain over a limited number of alternatives that differ only marginally from past policies. Large change is nevertheless possible through the accumulation of incremental steps resulting from repeated policy cycles. This serial nature of the policy process represents yet another advantage of incrementalism, according to Lindblom: it permits policy makers to learn through a process of trial and error, converging on a solution gradually through a process of successive approximations.

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Because Lindblom believed most policy issues exhibit conflict over objectives and inadequate information, he expected that departures from incrementalism would be rare. The knowledge base would be sufficient to permit rational decision making only for minor technical or administrative decisions. Wars, revolutions, or other grand opportunities may serve as catalysts for major policy shifts, but the eventual consequences of these dramatic departures would be unpredictable.

Public demands for policy reform

Some experts have argued that an aroused mass public opinion demanding action on a particular problem can prod policy makers to enact nonincremental policies. This, however, is far from the norm. Where policy makers with a long-term interest and expertise in an issue disagree among themselves, nonincremental policy making is effectively precluded by conflict over objectives and the inadequacy of the knowledge base. Under such circumstances, policy makers may distract mass public opinion while negotiating an incremental solution to substantive issues out of public view.

Whatever the effects of public arousal on policy making, nonincremental policy departures are unlikely to be effective where the conditions for rational policy making are unmet. The Clean Air Act of 1970 has been cited as one such instance. In this case, mass public arousal did nothing to increase the knowledge base available to policy makers. The legislation assuaged public opinion by setting goals for businesses that no one knew how to meet at the time the law was passed. The conditions for rational decision making are most likely to be met (if at all) late in the policy-making process, after policy makers have accumulated a great deal of experience with policies and crystallized their objectives.

One’s evaluation of incrementalism will hinge on underlying assumptions about human nature and what it is possible to achieve through politics. Utopians of both the right and the left reject its slow operation and apparent incoherence. More-pragmatic policy makers find incrementalism a realistic and practical way to pursue needed reforms gradually, through a pluralistic process of trial and error.

For incrementalism to work properly, at least two conditions have to be met. All or almost all affected interests must be represented in the policy, and there must be no major imbalances in power among the various participants.