Open AccessPolicy Without Politics: The Limits of Social Engineering
Author(s) -
Vicente Navarro
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
american journal of public health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.284
H-Index - 264
eISSN - 1541-0048
pISSN - 0090-0036
DOI - 10.2105/ajph.93.1.64
Subject(s) - politics , democracy , government (linguistics) , health care , power (physics) , political science , process (computing) , health policy , political economy , economic growth , public administration , economics , law , philosophy , linguistics , physics , quantum mechanics , computer science , operating system
The extent of coverage provided by a country's health services is directly related to the level of development of that country's democratic process (and its power relations). The United States is the only developed country whose government does not guarantee access to health care for its citizens. It is also the developed country with the least representative and most insufficient democratic institutions, owing to the constitutional framework of the political system, the privatization of the electoral process, and the enormous power of corporate interests in both the media and the political process. As international experience shows, without a strong labor-based movement willing to be radical in its protests, a universal health care program will never be accepted by the US establishment.