Changing Public Policy and the State

Abstract

The previous chapters have considered, respectively, the changingnature of British politics and the changing nature of world politicaleconomy. This chapter considers public policy, particularly welfare andthe state in Britain. Some specific issues, drawn mostly but not exclusivelyfrom health policy, are used to consider the extent to whichstates ‘make a difference’ when it comes to the making of public policy.Is globalisation going to remove the welfare state as we have knownit, and/or to standardise welfare models – say across Europe, if notmore widely?The nature of the international economy clearly is an importantbackdrop against which public policy is made in individual nationstates.At the same time, states, regions and cultures – even civilisations –provide a rich and complex inheritance of existing policy, normativeaspirations for policy and means of making policy.