Dalla Lana School of Public Health

Health Politics

Course Description

The study of health politics complements the study of health policy, by zooming in on the distinct and critical role that politicians and their parties play in foundational policy decisions. Politicians function differently than public servants because they are directly accountable to citizens, have the sole authority to change laws and many regulations, and have the ultimate authority to set budgets. Political competition, like a sporting event, also changes constantly. Thus, important health policy is often a consequence of politicians’ constant, highly dynamic, zero-sum competition for power.

In this course, you’ll learn how politicians shape policy through their power struggles with one another and in the face of unpredictable, fast-moving contingencies. You’ll learn frameworks to analyze and model the course of Canadian health politics; those frameworks are also useful in modelling other political systems, like autocracies. This course will also act as an on-ramp to a lifelong discipline of tracking and analyzing your political landscape through a daily practice of following news. We’ll learn by navigating current developments, using current political documents and guests actively working in health politics.

Course Objectives

After completing this course, you’ll be able to:

• Understand what motivates different political parties across Canada,
• Analyse how competing political parties and politicians are currently engaging in ideological and jurisdictional power struggles that affect Canadian health policy,
• Predict how fast-changing circumstances, like shifting public opinion or a sudden health-system crisis, could affect political power struggles,
• Create models for how political competition may evolve on a given health issue,
• Hypothesize the possible policy consequences of those political competitions,
• Understand the importance of Indigenous sovereignty in health politics in Canada,
• Implement a weekly discipline of following news coverage of health politics in Canada.

Methods of Assessment

Assignment 1: How a wedge works	30%
Assignment 2: Role Play Presentations & Reflections	30%
Assignment 3: Application & Reflection	20%
Participation	20%