Oliver, Adam 
ORCID: 0000-0003-3880-9350
(2015)
Special section on The New Politics of the NHS.
Health Economics, Policy and Law, 10 (2).
p. 221.
ISSN 1744-1331
Abstract
Towards the end of last year, the seventh edition of Rudolf Klein’s book, The New Politics of the NHS, was published, 30 years after the original release of the first edition. It is a book that is recognised widely as the foremost single analysis of the NHS, from its inception in 1948 right up to the most recent reforms. Rudolf has been threatening that the latest edition of his book will be the last for at least the last two or three editions. He also once told me that he would retire from health policy analysis on his 75th birthday. Yet, he is still going strong, well into his ninth decade. To mark the publication of the seventh edition, I invited commentaries on the book from three political scientists who are themselves outstanding contributors to health policy analysis. The three, Albert Weale, Jan-Kees Helderman and Larry Brown, are, respectively, from the United Kingdom, continental Europe and the United States, and thus offer, geographically speaking, an ‘inside’ and two ‘outside’ perspectives on the focus of the book, perspectives that can be found in the pages that follow. Rudolf wished for these commentaries to stand alone, and expressed a preference to refrain from providing a written response to them, perhaps echoing an Eco; that is, Umberto, who, on the long-standing BBC radio programme, Desert Island Discs, posited that a gentleman should never respond to his critics. Readers will see, though, that in this case the commentators are not really critics at all but, rather, like many of us, admirers of Rudolf Klein, a chief architect if not of the NHS, then of the story that is and will be told of it.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Official URL: | http://journals.cambridge.org/ |
| Additional Information: | © 2014 Cambridge University Press |
| Divisions: | Social Policy LSE Health |
| Subjects: | H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General) |
| JEL classification: | I - Health, Education, and Welfare > I1 - Health > I11 - Analysis of Health Care Markets I - Health, Education, and Welfare > I1 - Health > I18 - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health |
| Date Deposited: | 08 Aug 2014 11:14 |
| Last Modified: | 12 Dec 2024 00:49 |
| URI: | http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/58510 |
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