Towards a Critical Political Economy of Global Health

Schrecker, T

doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190456818.013.29

Towards a Critical Political Economy of Global Health

Lookup NU author(s): Professor Ted Schrecker

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Abstract

This chapter begins with a conception of political economy that foregrounds unequaldistributions of power and resources and the role of transnational actors and processes.Two specific case examples are described in some detail: (1) the structural adjustmentconditionalities demanded by the international financial institutions roughly –ost-1980and their impacts on health systems and social determinants of health and (2) theconnections between trade and investment liberalization and health outcomes, with afocus on harmonization of intellectual property protection regimes, on food systems, andgenerically of the incorporation of investor-state dispute settlement (IDSDS) mechanismsin many bilateral and regional agreements . The chapter concludes by identifying twodirections for future inquiry: the erosion of familiar distinctions between global North andSouth and the normative implications of the proliferation of cross border influences onhealth.