The Political Economy of Social Inequalities: Consequences for Health and Quality of Life
About this book
In the last two decades of the 20th century, we witnessed a dramatic growth in social inequalities within and among countries. This has had a most negative impact on the health and quality of life of large sectors of the populations in the developed and underdeveloped world. This volume analyzes the reasons for this increase in inequalities and its consequences for the well-being of populations. Scholars from a variety of disciplines and countries analyze the different dimensions of this topic. Part I of this volume reviews the historical evolution of the political context in which scientific studies on social inequalities have evolved. Part II examines the causes for the growing inequalities, questioning economic determinist explanations (such as attributing the growth to economic globalization) and technological determinist explanations (such as attributing the growth to the requirements of the New Economy). These chapters show, instead, how the growth of inequalities is rooted in power relations within and among countries and their reproduction through the state. The enormous economic and political power of the financial and entrepreneurial establishments and their related social classes is responsible for neoliberal public policies characterized by increased transfer of funds from labor to capital, further deregulation of labor markets, and declining redistribution through the welfare state. Part III then analyzes how the World Bank, IMF, WHO, and other international agencies are reproducing these neoliberal policies. Part IV addresses how privatization of the welfare state and resulting inequalities are negatively affecting the quality of life of populations. Part V presents one of today's major debates (the Wilkinson-Muntaner debate) in the scientific literature on the relationship between inequalities and health, contrasting different conceptions (one based on Weber, the other on Marx) of the pathways between inequalities and health. In Part VI, the contributors critically analyze some proposed solutions for reducing inequalities and provide alternative proposals rooted in the need to broaden the meaning of politics, democracy, and quality of life, and to intervene actively in political life on the side of those who question power relations within and among countries.