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The Competition State and the Private Control of Healthcare

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Global Health Governance

Part of the book series: International Political Economy Series ((IPES))

Abstract

Recent remarkable developments in the life sciences and in the provision and politics of healthcare are described and interpreted in writings on the bio-economy, bio-capital and the ‘politics of life itself’(OECD International Futures Programme, 2006; Rose, 2007; Sunder Rajan, 2006). Conspicuous dimensions of these changes, from a political economy perspective, include their global scale and the tendential fusion between science and technology, capital, and the state. Basic biological and medical research, largely funded by governments, is undertaken within international networks permeated by commercial interests, particularly those of the pharmaceutical industry, and economic considerations loom large in the regulation of markets. But politics is not waning — popular expectations, and pressures exercised by civil society organisations (CSOs), impose constraints on the health industries. Indeed, healthcare and pharmaceutical policy are high on political agendas everywhere as governments wrestle with the challenge of reconciling economic objectives — support for the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and related industries — with social policy and the crises of essential drugs and neglected diseases in the developing world. Taken together these contradictory pressures reflect that the state is present and active in the dynamics of the political economy of health, technological development and global health markets.

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Authors
  1. Hans Löfgren
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Governance and Public Policy, Griffith University, Australia

    Adrian Kay

  2. University of Salford, UK

    Adrian Kay

  3. Centre for Health and International Relations, Aberystwyth University, UK

    Owain David Williams

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© 2009 Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited

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Löfgren, H. (2009). The Competition State and the Private Control of Healthcare. In: Kay, A., Williams, O.D. (eds) Global Health Governance. International Political Economy Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230249486_12

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