Encyclopedia of Opinion
Question
Can incrementalism work?
Position1 of 3›
Yes, incrementalism works.
Argument‹2 of 3›

Incrementalism is the basis of change.

Changes in nature, human beings' existence, the development of the sciences, and policy creation are gradual and accumulative.

The argument

The claim that incrementalism works rests on the observation that it is how change happens anyway — that gradual, serial transformation is not one option among several but the basis of all change. The first case is natural. Changes in nature, such as mutations and evolution, occur through the process of gradual transformation rather than by leaps. Homo sapiens exist because of small changes accumulated over generations — an expansion in the cortex among them — none of which would have been recognisable as the arrival of a new species at the time it occurred. The result looks like a single decisive development only in retrospect; in the moment it was a sequence of small departures from what came before. The second case is intellectual. The sciences have developed through continuous incremental changes, each theory, technique or experiment leading to the next. No discipline arrives complete. A result is produced, it suggests a method, the method makes a further result possible, and the field advances by a series of steps each of which is small enough to be checked against the one before it. The third case is institutional, and it is the one that matters most for policy. The same kind of seriality — the gradual accumulation of small changes — is visible in the social sciences and in policy creation. The formation of a budget is the clearest example: budgets are compared to the previous budget, with certain areas being increased and others decreased, rather than being constructed from nothing each year. Policies are formed by building off previous decisions, not by considering all possible alternatives. That last point is the heart of the argument. Considering all possible alternatives is not actually something decision-makers can do, because the work of canvassing every option exceeds what any institution has the time or information to complete. Incrementalism works because it is the method that fits the conditions under which change is actually made.

Premises

[P1]Change in nature occurs through gradual transformation — mutations and evolution produced Homo sapiens via small changes like cortical expansion over generations. [P2] Humans create change the same way: the sciences advance through incremental theories and experiments, each leading to the next. [P3] Social science and policy follow the same seriality, as budgets and policies build on previous decisions rather than weighing all alternatives. [C] Therefore, because incrementalism is the basis of all change, incrementalism works.

Counter-arguments

Changes in nature occur in numerous ways. Evolution occurs through gradual transformations, but the Big Bang was not incremental.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P1]: Not all changes in nature are incremental (such as the Big Bang). [Rejecting P5]: Not all change is incremental.