A New Synthesis

We are on the eve of a revolution in health policy that will forever change our way of thinking about health and healthcare. A few years from now, our vision of the organization and the administration of healthcare services will be transformed. This is not a revolution born out of crisis, albeit the financial pressure on public and private funders of healthcare is clearly at play. It has not been induced by technological change, even if new means of acquiring and analyzing large amount of data—and consequently, unforeseen possibilities of testing hypotheses and answering puzzling questions—are among the most evident determinants of innovation. It is not a revolution driven by a clique or a conspiracy, although I will mention a few (intellectually) leading figures without whom the movement might have been less decisive. It will be the third time in my lifetime that I have witnessed such an upheaval. The first revolution took place in the 1970s, a decade or more before I began my training in health administration. During those years, the field that we now know as “health administration” or “health policy”, distinct from medical care or hospital management, emerged as the result of an intellectual breakthrough. It happened when leaders in our discipline realized that instead of just trying to adjust supply to an ever-growing demand, our most important task was to align health services with the population’s health “needs”

Les relations transnationales et l’intégration européenne : Note pour un modèle

The hypothesis of European Systems distinct from that or those composed of States is not new. In order to utilize this hypothesis effectively cognizance must be taken, in addition to the multiplicity of actors, of the rivalry of their projects and their strategies. Such an approach to the European reality would contribute to the construction of a new and useful model provided that certain methodological procedures are respected.Research efforts with respect to integration must not be subordinated to the examination of relations of interdependence within the international System. Ostensively structured to renew the problematics of integration, a thesis of that nature is in fact akin to the older « realist » paradigm. Rather, one would hope to benefit from the findings of research respecting transnational relations and to incorporate them with the more institutional concerns of integration theory. This theoretical mix is expressed by a network model, which respects the specific, multiple and hierarchic combination that characterizes integrationist phenomena. The "European network" model possesses two registers. Globally, there is the operator or System of relations that transforms or "translates" relations among groups. At this level, the model makes it possible to effectively describe the makeup of political Europe. Locally, the network is a assemblage of structures or hierarchic and stable sets that assume the form of alliances or of groupings, conflicts or shared ventures. Two further concepts are necessary to activate the network model: those of the "position" and "strategy" of the actors. The former is founded on dynamic oppositions and involves categorization of "major" and "minor" actors whose relations are analyzed by a consideration of the network's structures of order. The concept of "strategy" seeks to give expression to the relationship between the organizational mode of a social group and its representation. By attempting a synthesis of the "Marxist" approach of integration and the study of "transgovernmental" relations, this concept could be applied to the European States

Les politiques sociales et l’équité. Un programme de recherche

Cet article expose les conditions nécessaires à l'élaboration d'un programme de recherche comparée sur les politiques sociales, programme dans lequel diverses conceptions de la justice et du bien-être seront examinées et évaluées. L'analyse politique normative permet en fait de juger les objectifs ou les résultats des interventions publiques à la lumière des orientations et des choix qui s'expriment dans les politiques et dans les affrontements à leur sujet. Le problème que pose la réalisation de l'équité dans la vie sociale sert d'illustration pour cette approche, dans une perspective théorique et méthodologique aussi bien que pratique.Conditions for the development of a new program of research in the field of social policy are stipulated in this article with the purpose of facilitating the evaluation and comparison of different conceptions of justice and welfare. Normative policy analysis makes practicable a judgment over the objectives and consequences of public policies, as other approaches in policy analysis, but with an emphasis on the particular social choices and orientations that are expressed in public policies, or in political conflicts about policy issues. The question of social equity is used as an illustration for the research approach, on a theoretical and methodological level, as well as in a more practical manner

Canadian Competitiveness in the Health Life Sciences

The Canadian federal government’s recently launched Biomanufacturing and Life Sciences Strategy (BLSS) arrives on the scene after several peer countries have been moving quickly, and seriously, with their own health life sciences strategies. While Canada’s plan has much in common with the main themes of these other plans, it is questionable whether the proper policy infrastructure exists here for Canada to keep up in the highly competitive global health life sciences sector. It is within this context that the present report aims to present a high-level overview of Canadian competitiveness in the health life sciences sector

Les activités internationales des autochtones du Canada

Aboriginal peoples of Canada have never limited themselves to the national scène in their struggle to obtain the recognition of their collective rights and powers. Since 1974, this phenomenon has increased noticeably and the international activities of Aboriginal peoples can be seen as a major event in Canadian external affairs. However, Aboriginal peoples of Canada are not a homogenous group. Their participation in the international Systems or institutions is as varied as the traditions and the expectations of each aboriginal nation towards political action. Beyond a typology of the external relations of Aboriginal peoples, the approach used in this article offers new perspectives over the extent and the meaning of their international personality : without being a condition of aboriginal self-government, the participation in the international arena is certainly promoting the realization of this ideal

Canadian Competitiveness in the Health Life Sciences

The Canadian federal government’s recently launched Biomanufacturing and Life Sciences Strategy (BLSS) arrives on the scene after several peer countries have been moving quickly, and seriously, with their own health life sciences strategies. While Canada’s plan has much in common with the main themes of these other plans, it is questionable whether the proper policy infrastructure exists here for Canada to keep up in the highly competitive global health life sciences sector. It is within this context that the present report aims to present a high-level overview of Canadian competitiveness in the health life sciences sector

Health reform requires policy capacity

Health reform requires policy capacity Pierre-Gerlier Forest 1 * , Jean-Louis Denis 2 , Lawrence D. Brown 3 , David Helms 4 Abstract Among the many reasons that may limit the adoption of promising reform ideas, policy capacity is the least recognized. The concept itself is not widely understood. Although policy capacity is concerned with the gathering of information and the formulation of options for public action in the initial phases of policy consultation and development, it also touches on all stages of the policy process, from the strategic identification of a problem to the actual development of the policy, its formal adoption, its implementation, and even further, its evaluation and continuation or modification. Expertise in the form of policy advice is already widely available in and to public administrations, to well-established professional organizations like medical societies and, of course, to large private-sector organizations with commercial or financial interests in the health sector. We need more health actors to join the fray and move from their traditional position of advocacy to a fuller commitment to the development of policy capacity, with all that it entails in terms of leadership and social responsibilit