Institutions, Culture, Focusing Events and Their Effect on Narratives – Differences in the Public Controversy on Swiss Child and Adult Protection

This paper contributes to strengthening the Narrative Policy Framework (NPF) by applying it to the policy implementation stage and opening a track to explore macro-level narrative analysis, two elements that have so far been largely neglected in NPF research. To do so, we investigate the effect of institutional and cultural features on the emergence of different narratives during policy implementation. We assess these features by focusing on the well-established but partly conflicting concepts of path dependence and policy learning on the one hand, and the idea of different levels of faith in the state on the other hand. The puzzle behind our research is the following: In 2013, a newly created Swiss public implementing agency for the protection of children and adults became operational – the Child and Adult Protection Authority (CAPA). Since then, this agency has come in the crossfire of negative media reports criticising its role and approach. A massive negative discourse has developed, especially in the German-speaking region, less so in the other parts of the country. How did this come about? To answer this question, we use the quasi-experimental setting that Switzerland offers us due to its four language regions. We compare the shape of the public discourse on the CAPA in the two biggest language parts (German- and French-speaking) by conducting a qualitative media analysis from 2013 to 2016 based on the NPF. Preliminary findings show that institutional and cultural characteristics influence narratives and are a promising way to advance NPF macro-level analysis. However, in the case of the CAPA they are not sufficient to mitigate the impact of a focusing event, which decisively shaped the negative public perception of this new agency.