In studying these activities as ways of constituting social worlds, students are learning to examine

Writing and the Management of Power: Producing Public Policy in New Zealand Derek Wallace School of Linguistics and Applied Language Studies Victoria University of Wellington Wellington, New Zealand derek.wallace@vuw.ac.nz http://www.vuw.ac.nz/lals/staff/Derek_Wallace.html Abstract In contrast to the traditional view of policymaking, which assumes a rational process of problem identification and solution evaluation, much actual policy turns out to be solution-led. In other words, predetermined policy measures are imposed as “solutions” to retrospectively presented “problems”. This has been particularly true, ironically, of the supposedly rational neo-liberal or “New Right” resurgence of the last quarter-century, whose influence is perhaps diminishing in some quarters but continues to be felt. In these conditions, the processes and mechanisms of policy development, particularly the various genres of the formal written stages, can be viewed as a system of production, where the favored policy is “managed” through the traditional democratic framework of agenda setting, consultation, and enactment. This chapter charts the passage of a particular instance of policy development in New Zealand – the privatization of electricity supply – through this textual regime. The chapter shows both how traditional textual genres can survive unchanged into new circumstances, thereby misleading their readers, and how genres can change or rupture under pressure of new ...