DISCURSIVE POLICY ANALYSIS

Discursive Policy Analysis and Its Usefulness

Discursive Policy Analysis and Its Usefulness

Introduction

Policy analysis is a notion which is applied to wide variety of intellectual approaches and practices. There is no clear relationship between practice and intellectual approach. Definitely, there is a there is a dominant paradigm that sees analysis of policy as an exercise in applied social science. Policy analysis is done to determine which of various alternative policies will play the most important role in achieving desired objectives (John, 2010, 45). Policy analysis is often deployed in public sector. However it is equally applicable to other fields. Currently, there has been an interesting expression of interest in the study of policy as discourse. The authors argue that today various factors are involved in the policy-making, so the government machinery has ceased to be the only one able to define, implement and evaluate them (Hajer, 1993, 14). This phenomenon points to the need for policy scholars to seek new approaches, and proposes the use of discourse analysis as a tool for studying the actors, their interests, and their interaction with others and how they influence in shaping policies public.

In this paper we are going to describe what is Discursive Policy Analysis and how is useful are discursive approaches for evaluating policy. Initially the paper will provide short overview of the meaning associated with the notion discursive policy analysis than we shall describe its usefulness in evaluating policy. The purpose of this paper is to let readers know about the importance of Discursive Policy Analysis and its usefulness in the field of political science. Interest in this subject is dictated by the changes in society over the past decades. Instead of the old principles of society established themselves universal values, there have been innovations in the language in general and in particular in the law of language.

Discursive Policy Analysis

The Discursive Policy Analysis is a methodological approach of the social sciences and humanities. Discursive Policy Analysis is a qualitative and quantitative multidisciplinary approach that examines the context and content of the oral or written discourse. Before going into detail we shall first discuss history and provide an overview of Discourse analysis (Dryzek, 1982, 309). The analysis of discourse or discourse studies is a transdisciplinary of humanities and social sciences systematically studying the speech written and spoken as a way of using language as event communication as interaction , in various different contexts such as cognitive, social , political, historical and cultural.

History and Overview

Discourse analysis is a multidisciplinary approach that was developed in France, Great Britain and the United States in 1960s. It borrows many concepts from the fields of sociology, philosophy, psychology, computer, science communication, language and the history. It applies to such diverse objects, such as science policy discourse, religious, artistic. Unlike the content analysis in its traditional definition, discourse analysis focuses on the concepts, language and narrative organization of oral and written discourse it studies (Fischer, 2003, 32). The first modern linguist began studying the list of convictions ...