30 years of children and adolescents’ rights: an analysis of the trajectory of public policy in Brazil

Abstract Brazil is recognized for having an advanced regulatory framework in terms of guarantees of rights of children and adolescents. However, the daily challenges to put this framework into practice are still immense. How do we explain this gap between regulation and practice? To answer this question, this article proposes an analytical and theoretical approach anchored in a pragmatist perspective, using the method of cartography of controversies in the analysis of this public policy. This entails retracing the trajectory of the debate in the public arenas that compose this policy historically, seeking to analyze it from the main spokespersons, arguments, controversies, and worldviews present in the public debate. The results allow us to understand how public action in this field has been (re-)configured in the past 30 years, by dispute and stabilization processes, identifying its advances and limits. The conclusions of the study contribute to an understanding of the challenges of this policy, showing that these emerge in the interconnection of levels, forms of regulation, and networks of actors; this requires a review of the traditional conceptions adopted in the analysis of public policies.