incrementalism

plural incrementalisms

1. countableuncountableAny method of achieving a goal by means of a series of gradual increments, or small steps.

   And after a summer of extreme heat and wild weather, she evidently worries that incrementalism will not be enough to address a climate crisis that is crying out for revolution.

   2023 September 3, David Smith, “‘There’s a very real danger here’: AOC on 2024, the climate crisis and ‘selling out’”, in The Guardian, →ISSN

   1 more example

   We don’t want to scare away our members or provoke a fight with the government. So the only realistic approach is incrementalism. We will campaign, issue by issue, sector by sector, for gradual improvements. […] The problem was never that system change is too big an ask or takes too long. The problem is that incrementalism is too small an ask.

   2022 July 18, George Monbiot, “This heatwave has eviscerated the idea that small changes can tackle extreme weather”, in The Guardian