From ‘morality’ policy to ‘normal’ policy: framing of drug consumption and gambling in Germany and the Netherlands and their regulatory consequences

Drug consumption and gambling are regarded as morality policies, especially in the American literature. Both are perceived as sinful and treated accordingly. This highly generalized assessment is rarely analysed systematically in a non-American context. Therefore, we investigate whether these policies are indeed framed morally and if this framing is stable over time in two European countries. Next, we analyse whether shifts in morality framing have consequences for regulation. In this way,we contribute to the literature on morality policies, particularly the ways in which these policies are defined and empirically identified. We identify morality policies based on how actors frame issues rather than by policies’ substantive content. We show that the morality framing was once prominent but has lost its importance over time, and we find a close connection between frame shifts and policy output, although this is not a uniform development and does not characterize all cases.