Public Health and the Political Economy of War, 1914–18

1988 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 163-173 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. M. Winter
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Political Economy ◽  
The Political

The Political Economy of Health: Revisiting Its Marxian Origins to Address 21st-Century Health Inequalities

2020 ◽  
pp. e1-e8
Author(s):  
Michael Harvey
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Political Economy ◽  
Public Health Research ◽  
The Political ◽  
Health Issues ◽  
Race And Racism ◽  
The Public ◽  
Critical Theories ◽  
Political Economy Of Health ◽  
Marxian Political Economy

The “political economy of health” is concerned with how political and economic domains interact and shape individual and population health outcomes. However, the term is variously defined in the public health, medical, and social science literatures. This could result in confusion about the term and its associated tradition, thereby constituting a barrier to its application in public health research and practice. To address these issues, I survey the political economy of health tradition, clarify its specifically Marxian theoretical legacy, and discuss its relevance to understanding and addressing public health issues. I conclude by discussing the benefits of employing critical theories of race and racism with Marxian political economy to better understand the roles of class exploitation and racial oppression in epidemiological patterning. (Am J Public Health. Published online ahead of print December 22, 2020:e1–e8. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2020.305996 )

THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF COVID-19 AND ITS EFFECTS ON GLOBAL ECONOMY

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-24
Author(s):  
Vincent Eseoghene Efebeh
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Political Economy ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Global Economy ◽  
The Political ◽  
Global Public Health ◽  
School Closures ◽  
Political Crises ◽  
Us Government ◽  
Health And Disease

The relationship between human health and disease is neither a new concept nr a new subject. The outbreak of Covid-19 in Wuhan city of China in December, 2019 has turned out to be a global health emergency which triggers disastrous socio-economic and political crises in the infected countries. Covid-19, apart from becoming the greatest threat to global public health of the century, it has severely demobilized the global economy. It is against this backdrop that this paper examined the political economy of Covid-19 and its effects on the global economy. The paper argues that the measures taken to contain the epidemic in some countries appear as putting the nation under a state of siege. Some governments are adopting rather extreme measures - com-plete lockdown of the cities, the provinces and even the country itself, school closures, travel ban and cancellation of flights. The lack of responsible world leadership when it is most needed in terms of providing basic subsistence to the vulnerable especially in Africa has also proven problematic in the spread of the contagious disease. The paper concludes that the abuse of powers for narrow political motives exacerbate the spread of Covid-19 which brought considerable human suffering and economic disruption worldwide. The paper therefore recommends among others that the US government and the world leadership should strive to ensure effective and well-resourced public health measures to prevent infection and contagion, and implement well-targeted policies to support healthcare systems and workers, support low-income economies and protect the income of the vulnerable including social welfare payments to citizens while the monetary authorities offered loan relief to help businesses in the affected countries.

Malaria and the Political Economy of Public Health

1977 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 557-579 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harry Cleaver
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Political Economy ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
Health Workers ◽  
Effective Means ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Conflicts ◽  
History Of ◽  
The American South ◽  
The Third World

After more than a decade when the disease was under increasing control, malaria has been making a dramatic resurgence in the 1970s. Even more troubling has been the inadequacy of government response despite appeals by public health officials and despite the availability of adequate resources. This article seeks an understanding of this decontrol in the history of the political economy of public health and in an analysis of the current international economic crisis. An examination of several episodes in the history of malaria control and related public health programs shows how they have played a role in and been defined by a series of social and political conflicts. These conflicts have included agrarian unrest in the American South, colonial expansion in the Third World, peasant revolution in China, the Cold War, and a whole series of urban and rural upheavals for and against development in the post-World War II period. An examination of the current world crisis suggests that it is another such period of social conflict—one in which various sectors of business and various governments are trying to restore the conditions of growth and accumulation which were ruptured in the late 1960s by an international cycle of social instability. Allowing malaria to spread, like allowing drought and flood to turn into famine, thus appears as a de facto repressive use of “nature” to reestablish social control. Such circumstances raise hard questions both for the public at large and for public health workers as to the most effective means of reversing these trends.

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