1992Health - Navarro socialism reading

Question 1

what does Navarro set out to analyse?

Answer 1

Analysis of the assumption that capitalism responds better to human needs compared to socialism

Question 2

how often does a child die of hunger?

Answer 2

every 2 seconds

Question 3

how many children die of malnutrition die each year?

Answer 3

15mil

Question 4

why is it difficult to compare the two systems without weakening the validity?

Answer 4

The comparison has an unavoidable bias towards capitalism, as socialism always has hostility, economic blockade and even military interventions

Question 5

why does Navarro argue that level of health is not primarily a result of health interventions?

Answer 5

the health of the population is the outcome of a whole set of social, economic, and political interventions, among which medical care plays a minor role

Question 6

how does Navarro define capitalism?

Answer 6

is the production of goods and services for the profit of those who own the means by which they are produced. In capitalist societies, the major means of production are private.

Question 7

how does Navarro define socialism?

Answer 7

a system of production and distribution in which the means of production are publicly owned, with the state playing the key role in production. This system is the outcome of an autonomous revolutionary process in which large sectors of the working class and/or peasantry were the major forces behind the establishment of the state.

Question 8

how does Navarro compare capitalist and socialist systems?

Answer 8

continent by continent analysis

Question 9

in 1955, what was the life expectancy in Cuba?

Answer 9

59.5 years

Question 10

in 1955, what was the life expectancy in Uruguay?

Answer 10

66

Question 11

in 1985, what was the life expectancy in Cuba?

Answer 11

75, higher than any other country in Latin America

Question 12

Between 1950-55 and 1985-90, how did life expectancy increase in the US?

Answer 12

increased from 69 to 75.4 years

Question 13

Between 1950-55 and 1985-90, how did life expectancy increase in Cuba?

Answer 13

from 59.3 to 75.2 years

Question 14

How did the infant mortality rate drop between 1960 and 1985 in Cuba?

Answer 14

95 to 19

Question 15

what was the adult literacy rate in 1950s for Cuba? what was this comparable to?

Answer 15

30-40%, rest of the Caribbean countries

Question 16

what was the adult literacy rate now for Cuba?

Answer 16

96%

Question 17

If the rest of Latin America had the same infant mortality rate as Cuba, how many children’s lives would be saved each year?

Answer 17

over 2mil

Question 18

why did Navarro compare China and India? (3)

Answer 18

on the basis of their enormous population size, multinational composition, and level of development at the time of the Chinese revolution.

Question 19

what was the life expectancy in China in 1940?

Answer 19

34.1

Question 20

what was the life expectancy in India in 1940?

Answer 20

41.4

Question 21

what was the life expectancy in China in 1987?

Answer 21

69.5

Question 22

what was the life expectancy in India in 1987?

Answer 22

57.9

Question 23

what was the infant mortality rate in China in the 40s?

Answer 23

290

Question 24

what was the infant mortality rate in India in the 40s?

Answer 24

192

Question 25

what was the infant mortality rate in China in 1987?

Answer 25

32

Question 26

what was the infant mortality rate in India in 1987?

Answer 26

99

Question 27

what is the adult literacy rate in China in 1985? (m/f)

Answer 27

82/56

Question 28

what is the adult literacy rate in India in 1985? (m/f)

Answer 28

57/29

Question 29

If India had the same infant mortality rate as China, how many children’s lives would be saved each year?

Answer 29

4 million

Question 30

where in India is there socialist forces in government?

Answer 30

Kerala

Question 31

since where has there been a dramatic reduction of infant mortality in Kerala?

Answer 31

from the 1970s

Question 32

If we compare infant mortality rates in Kerala and in all India in the 1950s (before the election of socialist forces) with rates in the 1980s (after almost three decades of predominantly socialist policies in Kerala), how does the reduction in infant mortality differ?

Answer 32

the infant mortality rate in Kerala dropped 73 percent during this period, compared with a 26 percent drop in all India

Question 33

what about Europe?

Answer 33

the comparison is not so favourable for socialism, as the European republics of the Soviet Union do not have better health indicators than the majority of capitalist countries in Western Europe

Question 34

how has Europe’s situation with socialism be used?

Answer 34

It is this situation that has provided the ammunition for those who define the achievement gap as a failure of socialism

Question 35

having said this, what was the life expectancy in the USSR compared to the US in 1975?

Answer 35

just 8 months less

Question 36

what countries was Soviet life expectancy higher than? (8)

Answer 36

in Finland, Yugoslavia, Romania, Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Albania, and Portugal

Question 37

what was Navarro’s conclusion?

Answer 37

at least in the realm of underdevelopment, where hunger and malnutrition are part of the daily reality, socialism rather than capitalism is the form of organisation of production and distribution of goods and services that better responds to the immediate socioeconomic needs of the majority of these populations