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The politics of institutionalizing preventative health

The politics of institutionalizing preventative health
The politics of institutionalizing preventative health
Prevention is an attractive idea to policymakers in theory, particularly in health where the burden of spending and care is increasingly taken up by complex and chronic conditions associated with lifestyle choices. However, prevention in general, and preventative health in particular, has proven hard to implement in practice. In this paper, we look to one tangible legacy of the recent rise of the prevention agenda: agencies with responsibility for preventative health policy. We ask how this form of institutionalizing preventative health happens in practice, and what consequences it has for the advancement of the prevention agenda. We draw on qualitative data to compare the trajectories of newly formed agencies in Australia, New Zealand and England. We find that building and maintaining legitimacy for such agencies may come at the expense of quick progress or radical action in service of the prevention agenda.
prevention, health, governance, politics, institutionalization
0277-9536
202-210
Boswell, John
34bad0df-3d4d-40ce-948f-65871e3d783c
Cairney, Paul
5c10a3bb-d0b2-4179-ae93-0c64a0099c81
St Denny, Emily
72275e1d-686f-48ff-9fc7-77166515c1b4
Boswell, John
34bad0df-3d4d-40ce-948f-65871e3d783c
Cairney, Paul
5c10a3bb-d0b2-4179-ae93-0c64a0099c81
St Denny, Emily
72275e1d-686f-48ff-9fc7-77166515c1b4

Boswell, John, Cairney, Paul and St Denny, Emily (2019) The politics of institutionalizing preventative health. Social Science & Medicine, 228, 202-210. (doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2019.02.051).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Prevention is an attractive idea to policymakers in theory, particularly in health where the burden of spending and care is increasingly taken up by complex and chronic conditions associated with lifestyle choices. However, prevention in general, and preventative health in particular, has proven hard to implement in practice. In this paper, we look to one tangible legacy of the recent rise of the prevention agenda: agencies with responsibility for preventative health policy. We ask how this form of institutionalizing preventative health happens in practice, and what consequences it has for the advancement of the prevention agenda. We draw on qualitative data to compare the trajectories of newly formed agencies in Australia, New Zealand and England. We find that building and maintaining legitimacy for such agencies may come at the expense of quick progress or radical action in service of the prevention agenda.

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Institutionalizing_Public_Health_Revision_Feb22 - Accepted Manuscript
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Accepted/In Press date: 27 February 2019
e-pub ahead of print date: 5 March 2019
Published date: May 2019
Keywords: prevention, health, governance, politics, institutionalization

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 429208
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/429208
ISSN: 0277-9536
PURE UUID: e31461a5-ca13-4ac7-ba07-823a346e846c
ORCID for John Boswell: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-3018-8791

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Date deposited: 22 Mar 2019 17:30
Last modified: 06 Jun 2024 04:13

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Contributors

Author: John Boswell ORCID iD
Author: Paul Cairney
Author: Emily St Denny

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