Lindblom's lament: Incrementalism and the persistent pull of the status quo

Charles Lindblom never abandoned the incremental version of decision-making he introduced in 1959, but as his work progressed he increasingly lamented the impaired quality of inquiry that characterizes public (and private) decision-making. Lindblom did not identify the precise origins of socially created incompetence, but he made it clear that incrementalism is not the source. This article suggests that two lines of intellectual inquiry—one based on institutionalism, one on behavioral economics—provide persuasive accounts of the reasons for Lindblom's lament. In each case the status quo is a central concept and its persistent hold over decision-makers is the reason for less than timely responses to policy deficiencies. Neither line of inquiry is inconsistent with incrementalism, but each improves on Lindblom's original formula.