Health under capitalism: a global political economy of structural pathogenesis

Abstract

This introduction to the special issue aims to conceptualize the structural and super-structural relations between global capitalism and health, incorporating both historical and contemporary capitalism. Capitalism is an all-encompassing global phenomenon that interacts with health at multiple scales and via a range of ‘vectors’ that analysts must engage, examine and understand. We highlight some of the key structural and institutional conditions that shape global health outcomes. Deep and underlying structural effects of capitalism on health are evident at multiple scales and underpin new health challenges of the twenty-first century. At present, macro political economy – neoliberalism and market fundamentalism – profoundly shape governance of global health through regimes and institutions in areas such as trade and investment policy, austerity programs, pharmaceutical and food governance, and the rules that support globalized production and consumption. We develop an account of capitalism in which this overarching global system generates health outcomes like no other system, viewing it as structurally pathogenic with negative impacts on human health.

Keywords:

• capitalism
• health
• globalization
• political-economy
• pathogenic

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Susan K. Sell is a Professor at the School of Regulation and Global Governance at the Australian National University. She has written a number of books and articles on the politics of intellectual property and global governance including Private Power, Public Law: the Globalization of Intellectual Property Rights, and the co-edited Who Governs the Globe?.

Dr Owain Williams is a Senior Research Fellow at The University of Queensland (UQ) School of Public Health, and is former Fellow of the Centre for Health and International Relations, Aberystwyth University, UK. He is an expert on the political economy of health policy, and on intellectual property rights and access to medicines and the political economy of global health.

Notes

1 Yet after Australia prevailed in the Philip Morris lawsuit New Zealand went ahead with its plain packaging policy (Bonnitcha, Poulsen, & Waibel 2017).