AbstractsEconomics

Public policy is often conceptualized as a decision-making process, comprised of different stages or steps. Consequently, there is a tendency to view and examine policy as a linear and rational process, as well as a tendency to overlook language use as an important part of policy processes and decisions. Conceiving policy as discourse complicates policy conceptualizations, and posits alternative, non-linear, non-rational policy paths and elements. This thesis is an examination of policy as non-linear and non-rational. Specifically, and in light of recent economically, fiscally and politically challenging years for government in the province of Alberta, I examine government Throne and Budgetary Agenda Speeches from a previous, similar period of challenging economies and finances in the 1980s and early 1990s. I argue that language use in these agendas is an important part of what governments do.