Discourse Analysis and the Study of Policy Making

Since the late 1980s, Discourse Analysis has become an increasingly important force within the policy sciences. The core concern of policy studies has been captured as ‘understanding the world and trying to change it at the same time’ (Nelson, 1996). Rooted in the work of Harold D. Lasswell, who called for a ‘policy orientation’ in social science research, policy studies has constantly sought to develop knowledge in order to facilitate policy interventions, and thus to help resolve pressing social problems (Lasswell, 1951). Yet Lasswell's ‘policy science of democracy’ - in which academics were to fulfil an independent role as public intellectuals addressing public problems, not necessarily in alignment with the state - has been far less influential than the more instrumental sorts of policy analysis aiming to facilitate efficient and effective state action. The growing dissatisfaction with the limitations of the rationalist mainstream of instrumental policy analysis led several authors to appreciate the central importance of language for policy analysis.