This chapter describes and analyses the social network of policy actors and policy positions, as presented in Figure 7.1. In Chapter 4, I explained that policy constellations are fluid sets of policy actors who come together in pursuing shared policy positions, based on common moral commitments and material interests. In Chapter 5, I described the methods of social network analysis that I used to map these connections between policy actors and policy positions. The resulting sociograms are presented in this chapter. They show the clusters in the overall network. Alongside detailed knowledge of the field, including data from policy documents and interviews, such clusters can be identified as the policy constellations which operate in the UK drug policy field.

Some policy constellations form around one ethico-political base in particular. They can collaborate with other constellations with compatible bases but act strongly against constellations with which their ethico-political bases are diametrically opposed. Some constellations are hybrids, bringing together people who may have some different policy preferences but who share enough – including ethico-political bases that are compatible with each other – to collaborate and agree with each other in supporting mutually acceptable policy positions. It is possible to identify even smaller, more tightly bound and connected sets of actors and positions that focus on a particular issue rather than a broader ethico-political base. These smaller constellations are usually found within other constellations but sometimes overlap them.

In UK drug policy, the two most powerful policy constellations are the public health and conservative constellations. These are at the top right and bottom right of Figure 7.1, respectively gravitating towards the ethico-political bases of paternalism and traditionalism. The first brings together medical professionals, academics, politicians and civil servants who base their policy preferences on the desire to prevent drug-related harms by regulating people's behaviours and treating their disorders. The second brings together politicians, ministerial special advisers, agencies of social control and other civil servants who base their preferences on a traditionalist desire to maintain social order, including the defence of traditional moral positions on what it is right to consume.