Health policy and territorial politics: Disciplinary misunderstandings and directions for research

Abstract

The territorial politics of health is both underexploited by mainstream political scientists and the subject of a large and distinctive health policy literature that rarely connects with political science. This chapter first argues for the usefulness of health as a source of data for a more grounded and policy-focused territorial politics. It then summarizes the health policy approach to territorial politics, arguing that its empirical findings, more than its theories, can enrich political science on the topic. Subsequently, it turns to the findings of political scientists, highlighting the extent to which comparative welfare state literature is skeptical about federalism and could handle it much better, and the extent to which the literature about federalism and health is mostly nationally specific and overrepresents North American experiences. The last sections turn to some findings for comparative territorial politics from health policy studies, and some potential future directions for research.