NARRATIVE REINVENTIONS AS COGNITIVE MECHANISMS FOR PUBLIC POLICY STABILITY: THE CASE OF ANTI-DRUG POLICY IN COLOMBIA
By: Roger Rossi Ballesteros
Communications manager
The policy of the fight against drugs in Colombia had to undergo a discursive transformation as a consequence of the challenges it faced for its consolidation and stability. This article seeks to critically analyze the discourse surrounding this policy in order to understand through which cognitive mechanisms it was possible to change the perspective from an issue of international correspondence to one of national security. This policy, which was implemented in Colombia for more than forty years, is a sign that, in Latin American countries, public policies are consolidated in the government's agenda despite the lack of success they may have and the perception social failure of the same. When it was first implemented, this policy faced strong social rejection, which made it difficult to consolidate. However, thanks to an adjustment made by the Government, the policy was solidified and remained despite the high social costs of the strategies and the constant criticism it received.
The publication intends to reconstruct the discursive process of Colombia's anti-drug policy during its formative period in order to identify the narrative mechanisms used by the Government to obtain the necessary legitimacy to consolidate its strategy. To do this, an analytical framework was made that allows identifying and understanding the stabilization mechanisms associated with the construction and discursive transformation of ideas, in order to understand the discourse used in the public discussion about the war on drugs in 1980, which allowed identifying the key moments of adjustment in which the continuity of the idea of public policy was guaranteed.
The main conclusion of the article is that the discursive change was made in order to gain legitimacy and secure public policy in the political agenda by coupling the strategy to the framework of beliefs existing in the country at the time it was implemented. In addition to this, it was also found that the stability scenario is rarely a scenario of political inertia, so it is necessary to empower the actors that support the policy to activate the feedback processes.
“Narrative reinventions as cognitive mechanisms for public policy stability: the case of anti-drug policy in Colombia” was published in November 2020 in the Brazilian Journal of Public Administration and was written by Professor Jairo Santander.