Abstract
In recent years, a research area has emerged within social determinants of health that examines the role of politics, expressed as political traditions/parties and welfare state characteristics, on population health. To better understand and synthesise this growing body of evidence, the present literature review, informed by a political economy of health and welfare regimes framework, located 73 empirical and comparative studies on politics and health, meeting our inclusion criteria in three databases: PubMed (1948-), Sociological Abstracts (1953-), and ISI Web of Science (1900 We identified two major research programmes, welfare regimes and democracy, and two emerging programmes, political tradition and globalisation. Primary findings include: (1) left and egalitarian political traditions on population health are the most salutary, consistent, and substantial; (2) the health impacts of advanced and liberal democracies are also positive and large; (3) welfare regime studies, primarily conducted among wealthy countries, find that social democratic regimes tend to fare best with absolute health outcomes yet consistently in terms of relative health inequalities; and (4) globalisation defined as dependency indicators such as trade, foreign investment, and national debt is negatively associated with population health. We end by discussing epistemological, theoretical, and methodological issues for consideration for future research.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 946-964 |
| Number of pages | 19 |
| Journal | Sociology of Health and Illness |
| Volume | 33 |
| Issue number | 6 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2011 Sep 1 |
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Keywords
- Democracy
- Globalisation
- Political tradition
- Politics
- Population health
- Welfare state
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health
- Health Policy
- Health(social science)
Cite this
Politics, welfare regimes, and population health : Controversies and evidence. / Muntaner, Carles; Borrell, Carme; Ng, Edwin; Chung, Haejoo; Espelt, Albert; Rodriguez-Sanz, Maica; Benach, Joan; O'Campo, Patricia.
In: Sociology of Health and Illness, Vol. 33, No. 6, 01.09.2011, p. 946-964.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Politics, welfare regimes, and population health
T2 - Controversies and evidence
AU - Muntaner, Carles
AU - Borrell, Carme
AU - Ng, Edwin
AU - Chung, Haejoo
AU - Espelt, Albert
AU - Rodriguez-Sanz, Maica
AU - Benach, Joan
AU - O'Campo, Patricia
PY - 2011/9/1
Y1 - 2011/9/1
N2 - In recent years, a research area has emerged within social determinants of health that examines the role of politics, expressed as political traditions/parties and welfare state characteristics, on population health. To better understand and synthesise this growing body of evidence, the present literature review, informed by a political economy of health and welfare regimes framework, located 73 empirical and comparative studies on politics and health, meeting our inclusion criteria in three databases: PubMed (1948-), Sociological Abstracts (1953-), and ISI Web of Science (1900 We identified two major research programmes, welfare regimes and democracy, and two emerging programmes, political tradition and globalisation. Primary findings include: (1) left and egalitarian political traditions on population health are the most salutary, consistent, and substantial; (2) the health impacts of advanced and liberal democracies are also positive and large; (3) welfare regime studies, primarily conducted among wealthy countries, find that social democratic regimes tend to fare best with absolute health outcomes yet consistently in terms of relative health inequalities; and (4) globalisation defined as dependency indicators such as trade, foreign investment, and national debt is negatively associated with population health. We end by discussing epistemological, theoretical, and methodological issues for consideration for future research.
AB - In recent years, a research area has emerged within social determinants of health that examines the role of politics, expressed as political traditions/parties and welfare state characteristics, on population health. To better understand and synthesise this growing body of evidence, the present literature review, informed by a political economy of health and welfare regimes framework, located 73 empirical and comparative studies on politics and health, meeting our inclusion criteria in three databases: PubMed (1948-), Sociological Abstracts (1953-), and ISI Web of Science (1900 We identified two major research programmes, welfare regimes and democracy, and two emerging programmes, political tradition and globalisation. Primary findings include: (1) left and egalitarian political traditions on population health are the most salutary, consistent, and substantial; (2) the health impacts of advanced and liberal democracies are also positive and large; (3) welfare regime studies, primarily conducted among wealthy countries, find that social democratic regimes tend to fare best with absolute health outcomes yet consistently in terms of relative health inequalities; and (4) globalisation defined as dependency indicators such as trade, foreign investment, and national debt is negatively associated with population health. We end by discussing epistemological, theoretical, and methodological issues for consideration for future research.
KW - Democracy
KW - Globalisation
KW - Political tradition
KW - Politics
KW - Population health
KW - Welfare state
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=79959354128&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=79959354128&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1111/j.1467-9566.2011.01339.x
DO - 10.1111/j.1467-9566.2011.01339.x
M3 - Article
C2 - 21899562
AN - SCOPUS:79959354128
VL - 33
SP - 946
EP - 964
JO - Sociology of Health and Illness
JF - Sociology of Health and Illness
SN - 0141-9889
IS - 6
ER -