The formulation of the new public health policy in Brazil during times of democratization: between a state-related conduct and a societal conception of political acting.

Abstract

This article aims at clarifying the constituting actors of the health movement in Brazil, from the beginning of the 1970’s, focusing on their institutional anchors, organizing links e communicative articulations, in order to understand these actors’s role in the formulation of the new national policy of health, during the democratization period. In it, we attempt to demonstrate that social movements concerning demands may be decisive for a social policy’s democratic configuration, as long as they: (a) keep the participatory links of their social networks, locally; (2) have their leadership acting in the political-administrative system, in order to deactivate the bureaucratic impediments, and mobilize resources in the legislative power; and (3) respect the movement’s internal diversity and plurality, not only to facilitate the implementation of that which is common, but also to reinforce the meaning of equality and public interest.