An Examination of Policy Narratives in Agricultural Biotechnology Policy in India

Abstract

The Narrative Policy Framework (NPF) focuses attention on the importance of narratives in policy debates and on their empirical analysis. While NPF has become an increasingly important and accepted approach to studying the policy process, the vast majority of research applies it to the policy contexts of the United States, which limits tests of its potential generalizability and responsiveness to cultural specificity. To broaden the contextual scope of the approach, this study applies the NPF to a non-U.S. policy context through examining the controversial issue of agricultural biotechnology policy in India. It analyzes media coverage from leading English newspapers in India to explore the strategic use of narrative variables in policy narratives. In doing so, it highlights the important role of incomplete policy narratives in policy debates and outcomes. Policy narratives do not always contain a full suite of narrative components, and yet they may be among the most common messages received by the public and political actors. Through an analysis of incomplete narratives, this study attempts to further refine the definition of policy narratives and consider which narratives are important from empirical and audience reception perspectives. Results show that incomplete narratives occur more frequently and contain relevant narrative variables.