In the light of studies on policy design highlighting rationality, emotions are said to destabilize the institutional patterns. However, the paper argues that understanding how, when and why emotions matter is vital to thinking about issues related to the dynamics of policy designs. Emotions do not build the counterpart to policy designs but they are at their core. We can therefore explain how emotions appear as experiences that respond to discourse and that evaluate also its values and beliefs. The argument is illustrated on the example of Czech lone mothers. The survey was conducted in 2009 – 2010 and consisted of two focus groups and 15 semi-structured interviews. Contrary to conventionally conducted surveys that rarely exceed the frame of checking up and evolving common beliefs regarding this group, the survey provided the lone mothers an opportunity to express their problems (mainly the problem of alimony) the way they experience them.
