scholarly journals The effect of regional politics on regional life expectancy in Italy (1980–2010)

2017 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 121-131 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcel F. Jonker ◽  
Edoardo D’Ippolito ◽  
Terje A. Eikemo ◽  
Peter D. Congdon ◽  
Nicola Nante ◽  
...  

Background: The evidence on the association between politics and health is scarce considering the importance of this topic for population health. Studies that investigated the effect of different political regimes on health outcomes show inconsistent results. Methods: Bayesian time-series cross-section analyses are used to examine the overall impact of regional politics on variations in Italian regional life expectancy (LE) at birth during the period 1980–2010. Our analyses control for trends in and unobserved determinants of regional LE, correct for temporal as well as spatial autocorrelation, and employ a flexible specification for the timing of the political effects. Results: In the period from 1980 to 1995, we find no evidence that the communist, left-oriented coalitions and Christian Democratic, centre-oriented coalitions have had an effect on regional LE. In the period from 1995 onwards, after a major reconfiguration of Italy’s political regimes and a major healthcare reform, we again find no evidence that the Centre-Left and Centre-Right coalitions have had a significant impact on regional LE. Conclusion: The presented results provide no support for the notion that different regional political regimes in Italy have had a differential effect on regional LE, even though Italian regions have had considerable and increasing autonomy over healthcare and health-related policies and expenditures.

2021 ◽  
pp. 271-274
Author(s):  
Elisa Chuliá ◽  
Karen M. Anderson

The Southern Europe regional outlook presents a comparative assessment of the historical development of the healthcare system, health politics, and selected health-related indicators for Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Portugal, and Spain. The politics of democratic consolidation has influenced the development of healthcare systems; in some periods, healthcare policies have been central to the institutional consolidation and legitimation of existing regimes, but they have also been negatively affected by the political, administrative, and financial shortcomings of these governments. All of these countries have witnessed late transitions from social insurance healthcare systems based on occupation (with fairly developed means-tested programs) to universal and mostly tax-financed national health services: Italy and Portugal made this shift in the 1970s, Spain and Greece in the 1980s, and Cyprus after 2000. As the chapter argues, the central issue in Southern Europe concerns expanding healthcare access in the context of economic vulnerability. According to indicators such as infant mortality, life expectancy, and declines in treatable mortality, health outcomes in Southern Europe are largely favorable, but austerity politics have taken their toll.


Author(s):  
Kristina Dietz

The article explores the political effects of popular consultations as a means of direct democracy in struggles over mining. Building on concepts from participatory and materialist democracy theory, it shows the transformative potentials of processes of direct democracy towards democratization and emancipation under, and beyond, capitalist and liberal democratic conditions. Empirically the analysis is based on a case study on the protests against the La Colosa gold mining project in Colombia. The analysis reveals that although processes of direct democracy in conflicts over mining cannot transform existing class inequalities and social power relations fundamentally, they can nevertheless alter elements thereof. These are for example the relationship between local and national governments, changes of the political agenda of mining and the opening of new spaces for political participation, where previously there were none. It is here where it’s emancipatory potential can be found.


2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (39) ◽  
pp. 55-65
Author(s):  
Angélica Adverse

O artigo aborda o agenciamento das roupas no trabalho do artista Christian Boltanski. Partindo da dimensão do poder dos corpos têxteis, analisaremos como as roupas investem-se das palavras emudecidas dos corpos ausentes, constituindo-se como alegoria do testemunho e do documento histórico. A ideia central é pensar como as roupas explicitam a aniquilação humana provocada pelos regimes políticos totalitários. Analisaremos como as instalações Prendre la Parole (2005) e Personnes(2010) desvelam a presença-ausência da vida-morte na experiência política do discurso têxtil.  Palavras-chave: Roupas; Corpos; Agenciamento; Política; Memória.AbstractThe article addresses the agency of clothes in the work of the artist Christian Boltanski. Starting from the dimension of the power of the textile bodies, we will analyze how the clothes invest themselves with the muted words of the absent bodies, constituting themselves as an allegory of the testimony and of the historical document. The central idea is to think about how clothes make explicit human annihilation brought about by totalitarian political regimes. We will analyze how the installations Prendre la Parole (2005) and Personnes (2010) reveal the presence-absence of life-death in the political experience of textile discourse.Keywords: Clothes; Bodies; Agency; Politics; Memory. 


Author(s):  
Daniel S. Markey

This book explains how China’s new foreign policies like the vaunted “Belt and Road” Initiative are being shaped by local and regional politics outside China and assesses the political implications of these developments for Eurasia and the United States. It depicts the ways that President Xi Jinping’s China is zealously transforming its national wealth and economic power into tools of global political influence and details these developments in South Asia, Central Asia, and the Middle East. Drawing from extensive interviews, travels, and historical research, it describes how perceptions of China vary widely within states like Pakistan, Kazakhstan, and Iran. Eurasia’s powerful and privileged groups often expect to profit from their connections to China, while others fear commercial and political losses. Similarly, statesmen across Eurasia are scrambling to harness China’s energy purchases, arms sales, and infrastructure investments as a means to outdo their strategic competitors, like India and Saudi Arabia, while negotiating relations with Russia and America. The book finds that, on balance, China’s deepening involvement will play to the advantage of regional strongmen and exacerbate the political tensions within and among Eurasian states. To make the most of America’s limited influence along China’s western horizon (and elsewhere), it argues that US policymakers should pursue a selective and localized strategy to serve America’s aims in Eurasia and to better compete with China over the long run.


2021 ◽  
pp. 194277862110242
Author(s):  
Terrell Carver

The bicentenary of Engels’s birth in 1820 is an occasion for assessing his works as received by geographers. This Afterword to the special issue draws on Terrell Carver’s recent researches into Engels’s political activities and associations, beginning with his schooldays in Wuppertal, focusing on his Anglo-German journalism, continuing through his political partnership with Marx, and extending after the latter’s death into later life in London. The article demonstrates the value of close contextual attention to the precise character of the political regimes which Engels struggled to change. This approach also reveals the Marx-centric terms through which Engels has been understood, thus undervaluing many of his achievements. Concluding speculatively, it is possible to glimpse in Engels’s thought a geography of space-time, where capitalism is an Einsteinian warp.


2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (Supplement_5) ◽  
Author(s):  
S Sauliune ◽  
O Mesceriakova-Veliuliene ◽  
R Kalediene

Abstract Introduction Health inequalities have emerged as a big issue of public health in Lithuania. Recent studies have demonstrated increasing mortality differentials between different socio-demographic groups of the population. Urban/rural place of residence is related with a set of socio-economic characteristics, different access to material resources, presence or absence of social support, and attitudes to health-related behavior. The aim of the study To determine inequalities in life expectancy and its changes by place of residence (urban/rural) in Lithuania during 1990-2018. Methods Information on deaths and population numbers for the period of 1990-2018 was obtained from National Mortality Register and Population Register. Life expectancy for males and females of urban and rural populations was calculated using life tables. Changes in the magnitude of life expectancy inequalities by place of residence were assessed using rate differences (urban-rural); while trends in inequalities were estimated by conducting the Joinpoint regression analysis. Results Life expectancy among males and females was longer in urban compared to rural areas throughout the entire study period. Life expectancy increased statistically significantly for urban and rural males and females with the most notable increase for males, especially those living in rural areas (on average by 0.4% per year from 64.1 years in 1990 to 70.05 years in 2018). Inequalities in life expectancy by place of residence decreased statistically significantly among Lithuanian males from 3.48 years in 1990 to 1.39 years in 2018, while among females only the tendency of decrease was estimated. Conclusions Inequalities in life expectancy of males and females by place of residence decreased significantly in Lithuania throughout the period of 1990-2018, mainly due to positive changes in life expectancy among rural males. Key messages Inequalities in life expectancy of males and females by place of residence decreased significantly in Lithuania throughout the period of 1990-2018. Life expectancy increased for Lithuanian urban and rural males and females with the most notable increase for males, especially those living in rural areas.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 100143
Author(s):  
Michelle C. Salazar ◽  
Maureen E. Canavan ◽  
Samantha L. Walters ◽  
Sitaram Chilakamarry ◽  
Theresa Ermer ◽  
...  

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