Abstract
Law and public policies have an overlap in the theoretical and practical field, identified, among other factors, by the formal existence attributed by the right to governmental actions, the relationship between law and public policies mediated by institutional legal designs and by the intersection between law and politics in the implementation of public policies. These reflections enabled the creation of the Law and Public Policies (LPP) approach. Starting from the premisse to the emergence of this approach, this article addresses the following questions: a) What are the possible analytical gains of using the DPP approach to analyze research objects?; b) What themes can compose a research agenda for this approach? The article aims to elaborate partial answers to the questions raised and to presenting possible research topics related to the DPP approach.. To achieve this purpose, it is based in a review methodology and it is divided in four parts. 1) Link the discussion on social rights to public policies, in view of their need for the realization of this kind of rights. Analyzing social rights together with government actions allows identifying political aspects that permeate their implementation. 2) the relationship between law, institutions and public policies, illustrating the relevance of institutional design for the effectiveness of public policies, as well as the importance of a descriptive analysis - and not just normative - in the visualization of public policies in the legal field. 3) Possibilities of using LPP approach. 4) Delimitation of public policies in the historical and political context of the welfare state, pointing out the recent changes in the 1988 Brazilian Constitution that restrict the State’s capacity to provide services. It is concluded that the DPP approach allows analyzing the law linked to the political and institutional context of which it is a part. Furthermore, the identification, in this article, of different themes that are on the border between law and politics can contribute to a multidisciplinary research agenda that is under construction.
Keywords:
Law and public policy; Law and politics; Welfare state; Policies and institutions