Policy discourse as dialogue: Emergent publics and the reflexive turn

Abstract

The apolitical image of policy discourse has typically been reinforced by a peculiar feature of the discourse itself: its failure to clearly recognize itself as a form of discourse. Countering this technocratic image, reflexive interpretations of policy discourse— influenced by figures such as Habermas and Toucault—focus attention on its discursive aspects and thus help to expose its political character in the context of emergent publics. This political connection is examined here in terms of a contrast, following Bakhtin, between monologue and dialogue. A dialogical model of policy discourse is proposed. The contrast between monologue and dialogue is pursued through a three‐dimensional conception of politics that, both drawing upon and departing from Arendt, is able to clarify three corresponding dimensions of policy discourse: functional, constitutive, and performative. A dialogical, three‐dimensional conceptualization offers a way to understand how relationships between emergent publics and policy discourse create the potential for a reorientation of practice.