The NPF typically defines policy narratives through two distinct components: narrative form and narrative content.

 

According to Shanahan, Jones, McBeth and Radaelli (2017), “form refers to the structure of narratives, and content refers to the policy context and subject matter” (p. 175). With narrative form, the NPF takes a structuralist approach to narratives, holding that policy narratives consist of distinct elements, which can be identified across context. 

 

Contrary to postpositivism, which states all narrative content is unique, the NPF empirically studies content in terms of strategy and belief systems. This allows researchers “to examine unique policy contexts while still aspiring toward generalizable findings” (Shanahan et. al., 2017, p. 177).