Participation in social policy: public health in comparative perspective

Falleti, Tulia G., and Cunial, Santiago L. Participation in Social Policy: Public Health in Comparative Perspective (Elements in the Politics of Development) . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018. 88pp. $18.00 paper.

Participation in Social Policy: Public Health in Comparative Perspective is a small book with big ambitions. Many health policy and politics readers might be slow to find it. It is somewhat peculiarly included in a Cambridge University Press series, Elements, of short pieces on the politics of development, despite offering an assessment of a mixture of upper middle-income and high-income health systems. The inclusion of "social policy" in the title of the book also perplexes in that the book is resolutely, and convincingly, focused only on participation in health care systems. This is fertile and distinctive enough terrain, with health care's life-or death significance, entrenched power disparities, and tendency to intrude into the most intimate aspects of life.