Explaining system-level change in welfare governance: the role of policy indeterminacy and concatenations of social mechanisms.
Health Econ Policy Law
; 16(3): 340-354, 2021 07.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-962233
ABSTRACT
This paper argues that a certain level of indeterminacy in policy design may be a factor facilitating rather than hindering system-level change in welfare governance arrangements, provided it is combined with the triggering of specific concatenations of social mechanisms shaping the dynamics of the change process. The argument is illustrated by an analysis of a case of systemic change in chronic disease management occurred in the Italian region of Lombardy over 2016-2017, when a radically novel governance of chronic disease for the 10 million population was put in place (a health care system that was later tested to its limits by the COVID-19 pandemic outburst which reached dramatic intensity in this region). This represented a major change in a key area of social and health policy. We claim that such change processes may be studied by means of the conceptual tools of social mechanisms. The analysis of social mechanisms represents a lively research agenda for explaining change in public governance and public policy.
Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Public Policy
/
Social Welfare
/
Delivery of Health Care
/
Government
/
Health Policy
Type of study:
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
Limits:
Humans
Country/Region as subject:
Europa
Language:
English
Journal:
Health Econ Policy Law
Year:
2021
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
S1744133120000419
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