Incrementalism and Regulatory Policies

Incrementalism
Charles Lindblom outlined the classic model of policy making that includes a careful debate of values, research, and a selection among well thought-out alternatives that address the agreed upon issue. Lindblom attacks this as an unrealistic and rarely utilized approach to policy making. He argued that incrementalism is the way to affect change through policy making. We will get to where we need to be through small steps that may or may not be agreed upon by the whole.

Gay rights in the United States has been a long struggle. It continues as a battle in courts, churches, human-resource offices and voting booths. Fifty years ago, one could not imagine our country as a place that allows homosexuals of any state to adopt children, share health benefits, and even marry. Those who fight for these rights would never have received them if they had approached it by taking an "all-or-nothing stance." It was incrementalism and small policy fights that won homosexuals those rights. In another fifty years it will be incrementalism that will have won them the right to fight (openly) in the military and have their marital unions recognized by the entire United States.


Regulatory Policy

In his 1964 essay, Theodore Lowi outlines the different areas of policies as distributive, redistributive and regulatory policy. Lowi notes that regulatory policy can be distinguished from other policies because they determine "who will be indulged and who deprived." The recent economic crisis has led to a populist uprising in favor of increased banking regulation. In July of this year, Congress and the President responded by passing The Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.

CBS News Summarizes the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act

The financial reform bill seeks to create a consumer protection agency charged with protecting citizens through oversight of the banking sector, including company policies of credit card companies and mortgage lenders. In addition to oversight, the bill regulates the actions of financial companies by restricting the people to whom they can loan money.

This is classic regulatory policy according to Lowi. He writes, "regulation is obviously only one of several ways governments seek to control society and individual contact." The Wall Street Reform act is attempting to control society by prohibiting those who cannot afford loans from borrowing more than they can afford. The government does this by creating legislation that limits companies in the financial sector from creating loans for those people. In addition, the bill was created and passed through Congress, whom Lowi sees as the classic actor in regulatory policy.