gradualism
Noun
Meaning
(biology) The belief that evolution proceeds at a steady pace, without the sudden development of new species or biological features from one generation to the next.
(transferred sense) The belief that some phenomenon occurs gradually over a long period of time.
(politics) The belief that change ought to be brought about in small, discrete increments rather than in abrupt strokes such as revolutions or uprisings.
Source: en.wiktionary.orgSynonyms
Examples
However, this 79 Group gradualism was as much a reaction against the fundamentalists of the day, many of whom believed the SNP should not take a clear left or right position.
Gorbachev described this process as a "parade of sovereignties" and identified it as the factor that most undermined the gradualism of restructuring and the preservation of the Union.
His first point is to argue that phyletic gradualism — understood in the sense that evolution proceeds at a single uniform rate of speed, called "constant speedism" by Dawkins — is a "caricature of Darwinism" Dawkins, Richard (1996).
Punctuated gradualism is considered to be a variation of these models, lying somewhere in between the phyletic gradualism model and the punctuated equilibrium model.