1 - Introduction

Summary

This book analyzes the relation of preventive and curative health policy and its evolution over time. Such research is important, because current health problems are complex and need solutions that coordinate different sectors of the health system. Therefore, this book takes a look at the coevolution of individual health care and public health into a common analysis, taking Australia, Germany, Switzerland, the UK, and the U.S. as examples. Based on secondary literature, descriptive statistics and interviews with experts and policymakers, the book analyzes how the two sectors' relations coevolved between the late nineteenth and the early twenty-first century. Specifically, the book researches how health care and public health were related on the levels of the institutional framework, the politicization of interest groups and professions, and concerning specific policies. In short, the results show that there are differences and similarities in the coevolution of policy sectors between these countries. On the one hand, when the medical profession is politically active - in case of a competitive system of interest accumulation -- and the country a centralized federation or a unitary state, there is institutional integration and common political advocacy of the sectors' interest groups and professions. On the other hand, in the instance of relatively de-politicized health professions - against the context of corporatist interest intermediation -- and a decentralized political system there is less institutional unification and common political advocacy between the two sectors. Nevertheless, in all countries, both sectors coevolved towards complementarity, irrespectively of the politicization of professions and centralization of government. These findings are interesting for the political science literature at large, because they underline the importance of professions and structures of interest group inclusion for institutional development and propose a general analytical framework for analyzing the coevolution of policy sectors.