Narrative reinventions as cognitive mechanisms for public policy stability: the case of anti-drug policy in Colombia

Abstract Public policies face major challenges to their consolidation and stability that force rulers to make significant political efforts to keep them alive. Some of these challenges occur by the adjustment of the policy’s idea as an attempt to reduce the possible difficulties caused by public confrontation, thus better adapting them to the reference frame of the actors. Such is the case of Colombia’s drug control policy which did not have sufficient legitimacy to be carried out, despite international pressure, but it was later coupled to the international agenda as a national need. By using the critical discourse analysis, this study verifies how the discursive transformation of this policy took place and the cognitive mechanisms used to reinterpret it as a matter of national security and not international co-responsibility, which allowed consolidation of the current prohibitionist strategy. The results of the study reveal an interpretation of the drug trafficking problem as a threat to the institutional order, which reduces the confrontation capacity of the critics of the proposed policy.

摘要 公共政策在巩固与稳定层面面临诸多重大挑战，迫使执政当局付出大量政治努力以维系其存续。其中部分挑战源于对政策理念的调整——旨在缓解由公众对抗所引发的各类潜在难题，进而使政策更好地契合各相关行动主体的认知参照框架。哥伦比亚的毒品管制政策便是典型案例：尽管面临国际施压，该政策原本缺乏足够合法性以顺利推行，但后续却以国家需求为依托，被纳入国际议程。本研究采用批判性话语分析（critical discourse analysis）方法，考察该政策的话语转型历程，并解析其被重新诠释为国家安全事务而非国际共同责任的认知机制，这一机制最终推动当前禁毒禁令策略得以巩固。研究结果显示，毒品贩运问题被解读为对制度秩序的威胁，这一论述削弱了该政策反对者的对抗能力。