QUALITY / POLITICS (Q/P)
Political Capacity
The capacity to resolve problems, to reach
agreements
and/or workable consensus, in other words to take action, may be a (for
further information) scarcer
resource than financial means or
administrative capability. It is the objective of (for further
information) Deising's
"political rationality" and the measure of success in (for
further information) Lindblom's
description of "muddling through." It is a reason for the
incrementalism and "muddling through" that Lindblom describes.
The importance of political capacity increases as
conflicts
in values and perceptions increase and as uncertainties about
conditions,
approaches, and outcomes increase (because when choices have a high
level
of uncertainty they are more highly influenced by opinion, and
differences
in opinion tend to demand political processes to be resolved). Health
policy
issues face highly significant differences in values (consider the
abortion
issues) and deal with high levels of uncertainty (despite the pursuit
of
scientific medicine). The resulting demands for political capacity can
be
difficult to meet in political/societal systems of greatly fragmented
authority
(as in the U.S.) and from a political system expected to carry the
burdens
of conflicts between economic classes, cultures, races, ages, etc.
(again
as in the U.S., where these burdens can be heavier than in Western
European
societies with stronger and more stable class structures but is lighter
than
in fragile governments such as those in the former Yugoslavia)
Consider also the importance of political capacity
in
dealing with health problems that go beyond national boundaries. How
effective
are international institutions and international cooperation in dealing
with
new diseases such as AIDS or SARS.