PUBLIC POLICIES AND LEGAL REGULATION: AN ANALYSIS OF THE INTERSECTION BETWEEN LAW AND GOVERNMENT MANAGEMENT

Abstract

This article examines the intersection between public policy, legal regulation, and governance, highlighting how norms, administrative practices, and institutional interpretations shape the functioning of the contemporary state. The analysis demonstrates that state action does not result solely from the technical application of laws, but from a continuous process of mediation between legal devices, bureaucratic capacities, and political disputes that define governmental priorities and strategies. Bibliographic research shows that legal regulation operates simultaneously as a coordination mechanism, an instrument of limits, and a space for the production of meaning, influencing all stages of the public policy cycle. It is shown that flexible, coherent, and context-sensitive regulatory frameworks favor more responsive arrangements, while rigid structures tend to restrict decision-making capacity. The study also reveals that judicialization expands the role of the justice system in shaping policies, generating new challenges for institutional coordination. The growing presence of multiple actors, networks, and participatory mechanisms reinforces the need to integrate legal and managerial dimensions, consolidating governance as a hybrid space of interpretation and decision. It is concluded that understanding this intersection is fundamental to strengthening more legitimate, transparent state practices aligned with contemporary social demands.