Considerations on Historical-Dialectic Materialism for the Investigation of Public Policy Implementation

Abstract

This article aims to analyse historical-dialectical materialism as a methodological framework for investigating the implementation of public policies, with particular emphasis on educational policies. The discussion highlights the limits of empiricist, positivist, and dichotomous approaches, arguing for the need to apprehend social reality as a concrete totality marked by historicity, contradiction, and mediation. The article examines key dialectical categories—such as totality, contradiction, and praxis—and articulates them with the role of human agency in the materialization of these policies. Drawing on authors such as Marx, the study demonstrates that policy implementation is not a linear or mechanical process, but rather a dynamic social practice shaped by structural constraints and the discretionary actions of social actors. The article concludes that historical-dialectical materialism offers robust theoretical and methodological tools for non-reductionist analyses, contributing to critical research committed to understanding and transforming social reality.