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This article offers an interpretation of the cultural politics of childhood during the second decade of post‐authoritarian democracy in Chile (2001–2010), as sustained by the discourse of public policies in this area. I understand cultural politics as the combination of cultural contexts, social practices and political processes through which childhood is constructed in different societies and different times James and James (2008b). I develop a ‘textual’ analysis focusing on the discourse of the most recent official governmental policy document on childhood, which is still in force, as well as a ‘contextual’ analysis that examines the historical relationship between the state, public policies and childhood in different periods of Chile's history as a republic.

This article describes the results of a qualitative study, based on the perspective of critical discourse analysis, which explores the discourse on childhood of 10-and 11-year-old boys and girls from a middle-income socioeconomic sector in Santiago, Chile. Among the findings, a complex and relational notion of childhood is highlighted. The children perceive themselves as overwhelmed and subjected to excessive demands by grown-ups, and conceive of adulthood as a state without real freedom due to the excessive demands of work and family.

Based on the approach to language of Critical Discourse Analysis, this article explores the discursive construction of childhood in public policies during post-authoritarian Chilean democracy. Focusing on a key goal-setting policy document, the study notes how past and present discourses, including elements of the classical evolutionist view of childhood, the more historically recent children’s rights perspective, and that of the social investment in children, are combined. The social investment perspective tends to predominate, as part of the ‘colonization’ of discourses regarding childhood by the language of the free market.