The Science of “Muddling Through”

Abstract

Published in 1959 in Public Administration Review, Charles E. Lindblom’s text is one of the foundational references of incrementalism in public policy. In the pages reproduced here, Lindblom contrasts the rational-comprehensive model of decision-making, based on the prior definition of objectives and the exhaustive evaluation of alternatives, with a more realistic method grounded in limited comparisons and successive adjustments. His reflection makes it possible to understand administrative action not as the merely imperfect implementation of a plan, but as a field in which knowledge, values, discretion, and decision-making are intertwined in situated ways.