Medical organization doctors and policy communities’ influence over Brazilian Health Workforce Policies

Abstract

This article aims to analyze the influence of medical doctors as social actors on developing a policy for the medical workforce in Brazil. The analysis focuses on the years following 2003, when a seeking to include this policy within the scope of the National Health System took office at the Ministry of Health and met with resistance from medical societies. The study adopted sources were process tracing methodology, documents, and interviews. It is based on a neo-institutionalist theoretical approach. Findings reveal long-standing stability (1960-2002) in the policy and its institutional arrangement under the policy community formed by Liberal Medicine advocates (LM-PC); a period (2003-2009) when a thwarted attempt at change by the Ministry of Health met with the opposition of the LM-PC; a period (2010-2016) when such stability was undermined, and the policy was changed despite the opposition of the LM-PC; and, finally, a period when stability was recovered favoring the policy mentioned above community again, reversing several previous changes. However, the LM-PC could not implement its propositions since it faced opposition from other actors influencing the policy. Stability tended towards reproducing the status quo.