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Frames, Paradigms and Power: Global Health Policy-Making under Neoliberalism

2012; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 26; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/13600826.2012.656266

1469-798X

Simon Rushton, Owain David Williams,

Global Security and Public Health

Abstract The study of global health governance has developed rapidly over recent years. That literature has identified a range of factors which help explain the “failure” of global health governance, but it has largely neglected the global public policy processes which perpetuate that failure. In this paper we argue that there is such a thing as “global health policy” and set out a new framework for analyzing the processes through which it is made, highlighting the mixture of power and ideas, agency and structure, which impact upon the policy cycle. The framework rests upon four pillars: framing; paradigms; power; and the “deep core” of neoliberalism. Through integrating insights from a range of literatures, in particular from the global health governance and public policy analysis fields, we seek to enrich the conceptual basis of current work on global health governance. Notes *This research has received funding from the European Research Council under the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme—Ideas Grant 230489 GHG. All views expressed remain those of the authors. The authors have benefitted greatly from discussions of these issues with Colin McInnes, Kelley Lee, Adam Kamradt-Scott, and David Reubi. 1. E.g., Richard Dodgson, Kelley Lee and Nick Drager, “Global Health Governance: A Conceptual Review”, LSHTM/WHO Discussion Paper No. 1. (2002), available: (accessed 9 February 2011); Geoffrey B. Cockerham and William C. Cockerham, Health and Globalization (Cambridge: Polity, 2010). 2. See Laurie Garrett, “The Challenge of Global Health”, Foreign Affairs, Vol. 86, No. 1 (2007), pp.14–38; David McCoy, Sudeep Chand and Devi Sridhar, “Global Health Funding: How Much, Where it Comes From and Where it Goes”, Health Policy & Planning, Vol. 24, No. 6 (2009), pp. 407–17. 3. David P. 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