British and Polish parliamentary discourse on drug policy
British and Polish parliamentary discourse on drug policy

Summary/Abstract: My research is based on a contextual, social constructionist approach. Its aim is to answer whether and how parliamentary discussions affect the solutions adopted by individual states in the field of drug policy. In addition, I am looking for common elements in the narratives of politicians, as well as an answer to whether and under what circumstances it would be possible for them to develop a common position. I will present a comparison of the Polish and British discourses. In my research, I used the narrative method to analyse parliamentary discussions on current drug laws in the given countries. The method contains three steps: reconstruction of the narrative structure, categorization of the narratives, and their comparison to broader ideological and philosophical views. The analysed discourses vastly differ from each other. The discussions held by British parliamentarians are dominated by narratives based on references to facts and scientific knowledge. Polish parliamentarians, on the other hand, referred mainly to emotions in their narratives. Moreover, British parliamentarians seem to be speaking on their own behalf while Polish parliamentarians directly present the position of their party. Polish parliamentarians also often refer to the policies pursued in other countries and present them as role models. British parliamentarians refer only to American solutions, at the same time assessing them negatively. A division into materialistic and postmaterialistic values seems to explain the differences in the approach to drug policy. Politicians who favour prohibition choose materialistic values and liberalization is often supported by politicians with postmaterialistic values.

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