(Almost) nothing new under the sun: why the work of budgeting remains incremental

Incrementalism has a normative bias for moderation since it counsels moderation in claims of the good that may be accomplished and the evils that should be shunned. There should be moderation in social experiments, and the learning process must not be mere leaps of faith. There should be moderation in what should be expected from political representatives and from each other. Lawmakers who aim to do more than they are capable of doing and citizens who brutally judge politicians should consider the insights of incrementalism a useful warning or guide for budgeting theory.