Abstract
This article aims to demonstrate the relevance of the epistemological debate to understand the theoretical bases, the strands and the types of analysis methodology that target the field of public policies. This is a theoretical-explanatory research, based on a literature review of classical authors, such as Putnam, Arretche, Farah, Secchi and Howlett. The study demonstrates that the epistemological distinction between fact and value is an important key to understand on the one hand, the difference between the theoretical-descriptive analysis and the applied-prescriptive analysis of public policies, and on the other, the controversy between the positivist and post positivist strands, which marked the argumentative turn starting in 1990. It was concluded that the understanding of the epistemological issues is of great relevance to the rationale behind the analysis methodologies.
EPISTEMOLOGY; PUBLIC POLICIES; POSITIVISM