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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: joseph.white@case.edu
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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

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