The Locus of Discourse Analysis in Policy Analysis: A Critical and Applied Reappraisal

Abstract

This paper reassesses policy analysis through discourse analysis, showing how language shapes social realities, power relations, and policy outcomes. While grounded in theory, it adopts a clearer methodological and applied focus, presenting discourse analysis as a practical tool for policy inquiry and design rather than a purely abstract exercise. The article uses a structured interpretive review and cross-case synthesis of major scholarship and policy controversies, including climate change, immigration, pandemic response, Brexit, education reform, drug policy, and caregiving policy. Across these cases, it explores how policy problems are framed, how narratives gain authority, which actors are legitimized or marginalized, and how discourse narrows or expands acceptable policy options. The paper engages debates over positivist versus interpretive analysis, practicality, and the relationship among discourse, evidence, and power. It concludes by offering a practical framework for analysts and policymakers to support more reflexive, inclusive, equitable, and effective governance.