week 3 Flashcards
Who is Tommy Douglas?
Tommy Douglas was a politician who worked for 50 years and gave Canada Medicare
What was Tommy Douglas’s early background?
He had working-class parents who moved to Canada and then back to Scotland before he settled in Winnipeg, where he married and had a child.
What position did Tommy Douglas hold in Saskatchewan?
He became the premier of Saskatchewan.
What motivated Tommy Douglas to enter politics?
He wanted to make a difference and help the working poor.
What significant political achievement did Tommy Douglas accomplish in 1944?
In 1944, Tommy Douglas’s party, the CCF, won 47 of 52 seats in the Saskatchewan legislature.
What were some of Tommy Douglas’s contributions as premier?
He brought in North America’s first auto-insurance policy, relaxed liquor laws, fought for paid vacation, and outlawed discrimination based on race or gender.
What was the state of healthcare in Saskatchewan before Tommy Douglas?
There was no decent medical care that people could afford.
What was Tommy Douglas’s vision for healthcare?
He dreamt of universal healthcare for all Canadians, regardless of their financial state.
What challenges did Tommy Douglas face with the introduction of Medicare?
Doctors opposed Medicare (they wanted to save money) and went on strike, leading to public backlash against Douglas (because they were scared that the doctors were leaving)
What happened on July 1st, 1962?
Doctors went on strike, which resulted in a child dying from meningitis due to lack of access to care.
What was the outcome of the doctors’ strike?
The doctors abandoned their strike after 3 weeks, leading to the establishment of Medicare.
What are the two models of thinking about society in public policy?
Consensus vs. conflict
what are theories?
frameworks in the form of a set of statements or principles, used to understand and explain how a set of facts come to be
health policy can be seen as…
narrow or wide
What is the narrow view of health policy?
Policies specifying how the healthcare system should be structured and run.
What is the wide view of health policy?
Policies in non-health domains that can affect individual and population health.
What are the three levels of policy?
Micro level:
- concerned with routine, day to day government operations
- no major changes happening
meso level:
- concerned with the influences of the mid-level institutions (like government departments)
- middle level interference
macro level:
- considers broad issues (like the general shape of political systems)
- e.g. establishing a national daycare program
3 predominant theories in public policy
- pluralism
- new institutionalism
- political economy approach
what is the relationship between political parties and these theories?
political parties will follow one of these theories and it will guide how they shape policies
What is pluralism in public policy?
- A consensus-based model (focuses mainly on micro level)
- most influential theory in western society (in canada)
what are the 2 models of pluralism?
- Easton’s model of the political system
- states that inputs are fed into the political system and the political system creates an outcome - Kingdon’s policy stream convergence
- states that there are 3 streams that come together and create opportunities for policy change
What are the three streams in Kingdon’s policy stream convergence?
- Problem stream
- political stream
- where ideologies and beliefs gain acceptance - policy proposals stream
- where ideas and solutions are formulated
what happens when these 3 streams converge?
policy change happens
what are the critiques/limitations of pluralism?
- it fails to consider the role of political power or ideology
- it’s simplistic
What is new institutionalism?
- A consensus-based model (focuses on micro and meso levels)
- includes features of pluralism but also considers how institutions influence politics and policy outcomes
what are the 3 sub types of new institutionalism?
- historical institutionalism
- studies how political and economic structures may interact with each other and with current situations to produce outcomes where some interests are privileged and others are ignored - rational choice institutionalism
- studies economic positioning of political actors in developing policy - sociological institutionalism
- studies how culture and norms determine and influence our policy
what are political institutions?
state and government structures that develop over time and persist
what are the critiques/limitations of new institutionalism?
- it doesn’t look at how policy develops or changes over time
What is the political economy approach?
- A conflict-based model (focuses on macro level)
- transformative approach
- concerned with the mode of production
- supports the idea that people have the power and ability to change their environment
- interested in the influence of neoliberalism as a governing political ideology
what are the critiques/limitations of the political economy approach?
- it may overlook the role of individual actors and day to day experiences in healthcare
- it may not always account for other ideologies
What are the 7 main tenets of neoliberalism?
- Markets are efficient in production and distribution of resources
- societies are made of autonomous individuals
- competition drives innovation
- governments should be small
- taxes should be low (or abolished)
- there should be few government regulations
- goal of society should be to maximize economic growth
