Juventude e políticas públicas: bônus ou oportunidades, perdidas?

This paper aims at developing reflections about the relationship between the composition of youth in the last few decades in Brazil and the configuration of public policies for this segment. It assumes that the youth is a complex social phenomenon, and it is inserted into a concrete social-historical reality that reflects the tension, conflicts and contradictions that constitute capitalistic society. This analysis is developed from three fields of knowledge: sociology, demography and politics. With demography, we debate numbers, the configuration of the “youth wave” phenomenon through coortes juvenis and its impacts, confronting this process with the concepts of demographic bonus and window of opportunities. From a sociological point of view, we analyze both the impact of the volume of these coortes juvenis and what the youth represents in creating of public policies. As a parameter, data from two documents that diagnose Brazilian youth are used, each one produced by federal institutions on distinct moments: CNPD 1998 and SAE/PR/IPEA 2013. They helped understand the composition of the demographic transition scenario and the transformation of the age structure in the last few decades. We asked if the public policies and government actions developed in the time between the two studies mentioned above effectively considered the impact and importance of this phenomenon, which, according to demographics, only happens once in the history of a country. As a conclusion, going beyond demographics, youth is a complex social phenomenon in the sense that it is appropriated by capitalism, as a fetish for consumer goods and as an exploration of workforce, while public policies try to reach the reality of this phenomenon. Tem como objetivo desenvolver reflexões sobre a relação entre a composição da juventude nas últimas décadas no Brasil e a configuração das políticas públicas para esse segmento. Parte do pressuposto de que a juventude, é um fenômeno social complexo e está inserido em uma realidade/concretude sócio-histórica que reflete as tensões, conflitos e contradições constitutivos da sociedade capitalista. A análise é desenvolvida a partir da fronteira entre três campos do saber: sociologia, demografia e política. Com a demografia debate os números, a configuração do fenômeno da onda jovem por meio das coortes juvenis e seus impactos, problematizando esse processo com os conceitos de bônus demográfico e janela de oportunidades. A partir da sociologia analisa tanto