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Looking Forward to the Past? The Politics of Public Health

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2009

Rob Baggott
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Abstract

This article explores the role of political agents, institutions, circumstances, and ideas in the development of public health policies in Britain. The first part attempts to define public health. The second section of the article looks at the experience of the Victorian public health movement. The final part considers the re-emergence of the public health perspective. The underlying theme of the article is that an awareness of the political dimension, both contemporary and historical, improves our understanding of developments in the field of public health. The main conclusions reached are: first, that given the formidable political obstacles which exist, public health reform will only succeed if the reformers themselves operate with full awareness of the political dimension; second, that the modern public health debate is unlikely to be resolved in the short term.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Social Policy , Volume 20 , Issue 2 , April 1991 , pp. 191 - 213
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1991

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References

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