Explaining Path Dependence through Discourse Analysis: The Case of Seasonal Farm Workers in Germany

This chapter introduces discourse analysis as a theoretical concept and an empirical methodology that may enable the endogenization of path-creating and path-breaking changes in conventional models of political path dependency. Economic criteria, such as rents created by a policy, do not always provide a comprehensive explanation of path-dependent political decisions. Discourse theory suggests that specific interpretative schemata and narratives, such as storylines in the mass media, heavily influence political discourse. Discourses themselves can actually exercise a constitutive power that constrains decision-making processes and, thus, influence the ensuing policy-creation path. Hence, discourses must be taken into account when political path dependency, path-breaking and path creation are analyzed. In this chapter we trace over time individual storylines that represent important elements of the discourse underlying the restriction of seasonal farm workers from central and eastern European countries in Germany. We illustrate how dominant speakers and their storylines have been interacting to shape this policy.