Health policy in the devolved UK: Using multiple streams theory in comparative analysis 

Scott L. Greer, School of Public Health, University of Michigan

Date and time: Wednesday 18 April, 12:30-2 PM

Venue: Seminar Room E, Old Press Site, 17 Mill Lane, Second Floor

Abstract: Devolution in 1998 gave the United Kingdom a natural experiment in health politics and policymaking which, twenty years later, we can explore to understand the evolution of both the four health systems and the political systems that shape them. This paper characterises their trajectories in public health and health care, identifying some convergence after initial divergence. It then presents an explanation grounded in the use of the multiple streams framework, focusing on the way that differences in the policy, political, and problem streams led each system to make the decisions that it did. It draws on a variety of research projects, large qualitative, across the four systems since 1997 as well as government documents and fiscal data.

Speaker bio: Scott L. Greer, PhD, a political scientist, is Professor of Health Management and Policy at the University of Michigan School of Public Health and Senior Expert Advisor on Health Governance for the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies. He researches the politics of health policies, with a special focus on the politics and policies of the European Union and the impact of federalism on health care.

More information: ol264@cam.ac.uk (Dr Olga Löblová)