The construction and use of policy success and failure. Case regarding two national area-based urban policies

The aim of the article is to find out what a discursive approach can reveal about the role of previous policy successes and failures in the making of subsequent political decisions. Questions focused on are: how are the discursive categories of success and failure constructed? Which factors do such a construction depend on? How are such discourses used in political arenas? Do they actually provide decision makers with opportunities for learning lessons about policy effectiveness, or can they be used instead as a negotiable resource in political bargaining? The article deals with these questions through an analysis of two case studies – France and the United Kingdom – concerning national area-based policies aimed at coping with the economic and social challenges affecting cities. Two dimensions – «axiomatic» and «pragmatic» – are identified, in which discourses about policy success and failure affect the construction of policies in different ways