New Theoretical Lessons for Health Politics from the Global South

Session Submission Type: Full Paper Panel

Session Description

How do theories and tools of health policy analysis travel across advanced industrialized countries and low- to middle-income country (LMIC) contexts? This panel explores opportunities for and challenges of 'globalizing' political analysis of health policy, that is, bringing into conversation theory and empirics generated from varied health system contexts to rethink and extend the social scientific study of health policy. Much empirical research on health policy, and hence also the development of theory in this regard, has tended to be of North American and European provenance, and may fail to account for the distinctiveness of state, economy, and society in LMICs. Conversely, health research in LMICs has tended to be relatively little informed by contemporary advances in public policy and political science scholarship.

Papers in this panel demonstrate the potential for extending the scope of health policy analysis — its signature concerns, concepts, theories, methods — through a cross-fertilization of ideas across contexts and by revising analytic frames and approaches typically used to understand the politics of health policy in any one case or context. Kavanagh proposes adapting policy-surveillance techniques and tools from the political economy of development to map, build valid measures of, and construct models for comparative analysis of health policies in LMICs, focusing on HIV policy. Shawar and colleagues note the lack of clarity in use of a key policy term — ‘agenda’ — by global health practitioners, policymakers, policy analysts, and political scientists. They offer definitional clarity and a means to measure agenda status to advance the study of agenda-setting in global health. Gomez explores qualitative methodological approaches to conduct within-case comparative analysis of environmental health politics and policy within megacities in LMICs, noting that much sub-national comparative research has focused on urban-rural comparisons within advanced industrialized nations. Gomez proposes a new approach based on integrating institutional change theory and global health diplomacy. Gore explores the implementation of community health worker models in the US and India, suggesting how street-level bureaucracy theory may be extended to study policy implementation in particular health system contexts.

Sub Unit

• DIVISION 48: Health Politics and Policy

Individual Presentations

• Mapping HIV Policies to Explore Health Policy in the Global South - Matthew Kavanagh, Georgetown University

• Conceptual Clarity and Empirical Measurement of the ‘Global Health Agenda' - Yusra Ribhi Shawar, Johns Hopkins University; Stephanie L. Smith, Virginia Tech

• Sub-national Megacity Comparisons of Environmental Health Politics and Policy - Eduardo J. Gomez

• Community Health Workers as Street-Level Bureaucrats in the US and India - Radhika Gore, NYU School of Medicine

Chair

• Ashley M Fox University at Albany, Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy

Discussants

• Ashley M Fox University at Albany, Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy

• Scott L. Greer University of Michigan