%0 Journal Article %1 Hicks2013 %A Hicks, Timothy %D 2013 %J Comparative Politics %K health inequality myown politics %N 2 %P 207-226 %R 10.5129/001041513804634244 %T Partisan Strategy and Path Dependence: The Post-War Emergence of Health Systems in the UK and Sweden %U http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/cuny/cp/2013/00000045/00000002/art00006 %V 45 %X Why did a highly redistributive, nationalized health care system emerge in the UK, where the Left was comparatively weak, while a more redistributively neutral, cash-centric, insurance-based system was pursued in Sweden, where the Left was strong? The explanation is two fold. First, in contrast to the Swedish Social Democrats, the weakness of the British Labour Party constrained it to pursue redistribution via health policy. Second, given the redistributive goals of the National Health Service, it became imperative for the Labour Party to construct a system that would, be difficult for future Conservative governments to retrench. More generally, this formulation posits rational actors operating in the kinds of processes typically studied by historical institutionalists. The result is a tendency for a type of path dependence by design.

@article{Hicks2013, abstract = {Why did a highly redistributive, nationalized health care system emerge in the UK, where the Left was comparatively weak, while a more redistributively neutral, cash-centric, insurance-based system was pursued in Sweden, where the Left was strong? The explanation is two fold. First, in contrast to the Swedish Social Democrats, the weakness of the British Labour Party constrained it to pursue redistribution via health policy. Second, given the redistributive goals of the National Health Service, it became imperative for the Labour Party to construct a system that would, be difficult for future Conservative governments to retrench. More generally, this formulation posits rational actors operating in the kinds of processes typically studied by historical institutionalists. The result is a tendency for a type of path dependence by design.}, added-at = {2015-04-09T14:46:00.000+0200}, author = {Hicks, Timothy}, biburl = {https://www.bibsonomy.org/bibtex/22388a6e4e5392c876d84b374708ef038/timhicks}, doi = {10.5129/001041513804634244}, interhash = {88cc33ce650a243f5cbaa9b9b4a58e53}, intrahash = {2388a6e4e5392c876d84b374708ef038}, journal = {Comparative Politics}, keywords = {health inequality myown politics}, number = 2, pages = {207-226}, timestamp = {2015-04-09T14:47:59.000+0200}, title = {Partisan Strategy and Path Dependence: The Post-War Emergence of Health Systems in the UK and Sweden}, url = {http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/cuny/cp/2013/00000045/00000002/art00006}, volume = 45, year = 2013 }