Imagining just discourse in policy-making: Transnational space, identity, and the other

Policy sets forth an understanding through rules that govern an issue needing resolution such as education, health and welfare, security, and immigration. These domains may be readily accepted as longstanding issues in humanity, evidenced by the continued expenditure of monies towards proposed solutions. However, the continued acknowledgment of these domains as social issues raises the question: "Why don't our policies ameliorate social ills?" This research attempts to address this question by investigating three far-reaching social policies through the lens of a critical hermeneutic orientation: the United Nations Millennium Development Act (2002), the United States' National Security Strategy (2006), and the proposed United States' Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act (2006).;This research study is a review of literature in various disciplines such as sociocultural anthropology, political science, international relations, foreign policy, and critical hermeneutics. The methodology is based primarily on the critical hermeneutic research approach (Herda 1999, Jervolino 1990, Geertz 2000). Information was collected and analyzed in a critical hermeneutic orientation. The research focused on identity and other, and just discourse as the research constructs of fusion of horizons, mimesis, and emplotment. The validity of critical hermeneutical research lies in the text and the dialectic established with the reader.;Overall, the findings show that policies may compound the problem being addressed. Policies emplot a narrative of one's identity; however, current policy is a narrative of self and does not include the other. Policy shows that the meaning of action is not understood and instead attempts to rationalize moral judgment.;Given these findings, the implications stem from a change in the paradigm of policymaking. If policies can emplot a narrative, then policies can describe a narrative of self and other. Policies are social text in transnational space that offer descriptions towards a shared understanding of an ethical aim.;In efforts to set forth policy, rules, and guidelines that affect people, we must be cognizant of the meaning they imbue if we are to be effective in any way. Policy is not meant to be measured but experienced as it manifests itself in our lives.