Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-l4dxg Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-24T17:38:38.331Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Capacity and authority: comments on governing doctors and health care

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2009

JOSEPH WHITE
JOSEPH WHITE*
Affiliation:
Director of the Center for Policy Studies, Case Western Reserve University, Ohio, USA
*
*Correspondence to: Joseph White, Director of the Center for Policy Studies, Mather House 113, 11201 Euclid Avenue, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH 44106–7109, USA. Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This stimulating set of articles provides intriguing information and comments about medical governance in four countries. The commentary argues that the typology of governance approaches is not as useful as one would want for understanding either the political prospects or policy effects of governance measures. The politics of governance measures is distinctly related to efforts to avoid blame, and the effects of measures are better understood in terms of state capacity and a term, ‘authority’, that advocates of ‘governance’ usually avoid. Close attention to the requisites of authority provides some insight into the patterns of adoption and consequences of measures. These patterns are highlighted by comparing the four cases reviewed to experience in the United States.

Type
Articles
Information
Health Economics, Policy and Law , Volume 4 , Issue 3: Governing Medical Performance: A Comparative Analysis of Pathways of Change , July 2009 , pp. 367 - 382
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Advisory Council for the Concerted Action in Health Care (2003), ‘Health care finance, user orientation and quality’, Report 2003, Summary, Bonn.Google Scholar
Anderson, G. F., Reinhardt, U. E., Hussey, P. S. and Petrosyan, V. (2003), ‘It's the prices stupid: why the United States is so different from other countries’, Health Affairs, 22(3): 89–105Google Scholar
Considine, M. and Lewis, J. M. (2003), ‘Bureaucracy, network, or enterprise? Comparing models of governance in Australia, Britain, the Netherlands, and New Zealand’, Public Administration Review, 63(2): 131–140.Google Scholar
Draper, D. A., Liebhaber, A. and Ginsburg, P. B. (2007), ‘High performance health plan networks: early experiences’, Center for Studying Health System Change, Issue Brief, 111 (May).Google Scholar
European Union (2007), ‘Governance in the EU: a white paper ’, http://ec.europa.edu/governance/ined_en.htm/white-paper/index_en.htm. [4 January 2008].Google Scholar
Glaser, W. A. (1994), ‘Doctors and public authorities: the trend toward collaboration’, Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law, 19: 705–727CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Maynard, A. (2005), ‘Increasing public expenditures on health care ’, in World Bank, East Asia and Pacific Region Human Development Sector Unit, Reforming health social security: Proceedings of an international seminar, Working Paper Series No. 2005-4: 99–110.Google Scholar
Millenson, M. (2005), ‘Still Demanding Medical Excellence’, in Mechanic, D., Rogut, L. B., Colby, D. C. and Knickman, J. R. (eds), Policy Challenges in Modern Healthcare, New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press: 151–61.Google Scholar
Moran, M. (2000), ‘Understanding the welfare state: the case of health care’, British Journal of Politics and International Relations, 2: 135–60CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oliver, A. (2007), ‘The Veterans Health Administration: an American success story?’, The Milbank Quarterly, 85(1): 5–35Google Scholar
Payer, L. (1996), Medicine & Culture, New York: Henry Holt and CompanyGoogle Scholar
Pedersen, K. M., Christiansen, T. and Bech, M. (2005), ‘The Danish health care system: evolution – not revolution – in a decentralized system’, Health Economics, (Special Issue) 14: S41–S57CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Reschovsky, J. and Hadley, J. (2007), ‘Physician financial incentives: use of quality incentives inches up, but productivity still dominates’, Center for Studying Health System Change, Issue Brief, 108 (January).Google Scholar
Simon, H. A. (1997), Administrative Behavior, 4th edn, New York: The Free PressGoogle Scholar
Thompson, F. (2002), ‘Reinvention in the states: ripple or tide?’ Public Administration Review, 62(3): 362–367.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tuohy, C. (2003), ‘Agency, contract, and governance: shifting shapes of accountability in the health care arena’, Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law, 28(2–3): 195–215Google Scholar
White, J. (1998), ‘Health care reform: what is the problem?’, in Marmor, T. R. and De Jong, P. R. (eds), Ageing, social security and affordability, Aldershot, UK and Brookfield, US: AshgateGoogle Scholar
White, J. (1999), ‘Targets and systems of health care cost control’, Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law, 24: 4CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
White, J. (2007), ‘Markets and medical care: the United States, 1993–2005 ’, The Milbank Quarterly, 85(3): 395–448CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wong, J. (2005), ‘Re-casting Canadian federalism: health care financing in the new century’, in World Bank, East Asia and Pacific Region Human Development Sector Unit, Reforming health social security: Proceedings of an international seminar, Working Paper Series No. 2005–4: 111–34.Google Scholar
Worz, M. and Busse, R. (2005), ‘Analysing the impact of health-care system change in the EU member states – Germany’ Health Economics (Special Issue) 14: S133–S149Google Scholar