Health politics

1800s: Martineau · Tocqueville · Marx · Spencer · Le Bon · Ward · Pareto · Tönnies · Veblen · Simmel · Durkheim · Addams · Mead · Weber · Du Bois · Mannheim · Elias Health politics or politics of health is an interdisciplinary field of study concerned with the analysis of social and political power over the health status of individuals.

[9][10] As an interdisciplinary area of study, it is seen as under-researched, with literature focusing on the social and cultural determinants of health at the lack of political ones.

[14] This then transfers power away from the public body and into the medical profession and industry such that they can 'determine what health is and, therefore, how political it is (or, more usually, is not)'.

[15] "Among professionals in public health, the political system is commonly viewed as a subway's third rail: avoid touching it, lest you get burned.

"[19] The delivery, planning, and research into health and healthcare, within the modern age of nation-states, is a highly state-orientated enterprise.

The bureaucracy in its provision and regulation throughout countries across the world is often one of the most highly centralized activities of government and political actors.

[30][31] This field of study explores how political culture, class relationships, and economic resources shape the implementation of health policy and wider social determinants of health, often taking the form of comparative case studies.

[34] LGBT or gender and sexual minorities (GSMs)[a], through a complex history and ongoing discriminations, have a distinct sub-field within health politics.

[36][37][38] Using theories generated by Karl Marx and Marxist scholars, a Marxist health politics centers on class conflict and the failures of capitalism and capitalistic processes and actors in the persistence of health inequalities and inequity.