Drug policy constellations: A Habermasian approach for understanding English drug policy

Actors who share interests and norms come together in policy constellations. Strategic action within and between constellations creates policies that may not take the form that was intended by any individual actor. These policies do not result from purely rational deliberation, but are produced through 'systematically distorted communication'. They enable the most structurally favoured actors to institutionalise their own normative preferences and structural positions.