The last three decades have been fertile for the establishment of public policies geared to comprehensive health care for various population groups in Brazil. The scope of this article is to present the partial results of the analysis of the narratives of actors who participated in the creation of the Comprehensive Health Care policy for Adolescents and Youths - PNAISAJ in Brazil, in order to explore the lack of consensus in this process. The analysis was based on the narratives of eight actors who participated in the process and sought to identify the thematic units that express the lack of consensus by a comprehensive analysis based on Bourdieu's sociological perspective. We conclude that the non-legitimation of a national policy for this population group manifests the non-recognition of adolescents and youths as autonomous subjects and protagonists on policy decisions that affect them. Although youth participation in political texts is stated as a new paradigm for comprehensive health care promotion for adolescents and young people, we conclude that what prevails culturally is the legitimation of other significances. These are significances according to the broader interests and understanding of adolescence and youth at social levels, interpreted as cultural policies.
Public health policies; adolescents and youths; youth protagonism; cultural policies