Silences in Public Policy Discourse: Organizational and Policy Myths

Myths are not only tales told by “prescientific” peoples about the origins of their universe. Myths also are constructed by modern Western peoples in the arena of public policy, where they direct attention away from equally valued but contradictory societal principles. Agencies created to implement policies also construct myths. Policy myths and their related organizational myths are constructed at those points where the implementing agency is most vulnerable: around actions undertaken to achieve verboten goals-those goals that are publicly unspeakable because there is no explicit public consensus underlying them. Policy myths, in other words, fill silences in discourse about public policy matters. Yet these myths also facilitate the tacit understanding of and communication about verboten goals. These points are illustrated in a case analysis of the Israel Corporation of Community Centers, an agency created to implement national social policies.