[Policy, planning and health management: the current understanding]

This work provides a literature review of Policy, Planning and Health Management between 1974 and 2005. Information is presented from previous research and publications, incorporating the production contained within the LILACS database from the last five years. The emergence of studies in these sub-themes is described in an attempt to associate them with political circumstances, with particular emphasis on: the Sanitary Reform Process, the construction of the National Health System and the reorientation of health practices. The particularities of the production in this field are discussed and the need for historical and epistemological work in Brazil is emphasized. The practical challenges impose techno-scientific expertise and, primarily, socio-political militancy on individual and collective subjects.