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The article proposes an archaeological approach, inspired by Michel Foucault’s studies, of the emergence and consolidation of Public Policies as a scientific area of the empirical field of political knowledge in the United States between 1906 and 1960. The aim is to provide a critical counterpoint to the vision traditional, rationalistic and pragmatic approach to public policy. In these initial 60 years of exploration, of the field, the founding discourses, tensions and clashes between the various theoretical and philosophical currents, practically ignored in the historical studies of the area, and the affirmation of a pragmatic and rationalistic knowledge, which began to guide and define what are the Public Policies and how to study them.The qualitative research was based on the archegenealogical method proposed by Michel Foucault, which allowed us to question the field of Public Policy in its genesis in order to identify the knowledge and tensions that presided over its formation. The study showed that the field remains bound by the same founding statements and rules, and dominated by scientific concepts and codes of perception guided by the term policy and, because of that, still remains closed to new approaches, especially those inspired by critical epistemology

O artigo propõe uma abordagem arquegenealógica, inspirada nos estudos de Michel Foucault, da emergência e consolidação das Políticas Públicas como uma área cientifica do campo empírico do saber político, nos Estados Unidos, entre 1906 e 1960. Explora-se, nestes 60 anos iniciais de formação do campo, os discursos fundantes, as tensões e os embates entre as diversas correntes teóricas e filosóficas, praticamente ignorados nos estudos históricos da área, e a afirmação de um saber, pragmático e racionalista, que passou a orientar e definir o que são as Políticas Públicas e como se deve estudá-las.