Populism and health policy: three international case studies of right‐wing populist policy frames

Abstract

Over the past decade, some of the world's most stable parliamentary democracies have witnessed a revival in right‐wing populist political parties, movements and leaders. Although there is a growing body of theoretical and empirical literature documenting the rise of populism, there has been very little exploration of the implications for health policy of this important political development. In this article, we draw from three illustrative international cases, originating from the USA, the UK and Italy, to explore the ways in which right‐wing populism influences health policy: the election of President Trump in the United States (and subsequent healthcare reforms), the United Kingdom's vote to withdraw from the European Union (Brexit), and how this has played out in the context of the UK National Health Service, and the rise of a politically aligned anti‐vaccination movement in Italy. Drawing on the work of the influential socio‐political theorist Ernesto Laclau, we interpret populism as a performative political act, predicated on drawing logics of equivalence (and difference) between different actors. We use this theoretical framing to explore the ways in which the recent upsurge in right‐wing populism creates a specific set of barriers and challenges for access to healthcare and the health of populations.

Vaccine Hesitancy and Political Populism. An Invariant Cross-European Perspective

“…Political ideology influences how policymakers address and give solutions to healthcare issues [ 13 ]. Recently, many established democracies have experienced a flourishing of populist political movements [ 14 ]. Most of them belong to the right-wing political spectrum, but not necessarily.…”

Political Populism, Institutional Distrust and Vaccination Uptake: A Mediation Analysis

“…In addition, politics played, and still plays nowadays, an essential role in several other vaccine-related dimensions: research and development, procurement, production, and marketing activities [ 2 ]. Hence, politics is ubiquitous in public health [ 3 ], but vaccines have never been weaponized to instill distrust to gain a political advantage [ 4 ].…”

The Impact of COVID-19 on the Support for the German AfD: Jumping the Populist Ship or Staying the Course?

“…First, there is a strong historical connection between the (fascist) radical right-wing ideology and public health, as this ideology carries the notion of an imagined healthy ‘national body’ in which people with illnesses and disabilities are excluded from the imagined ‘people’ (Schäfer 2005 ). Solidarity with these marginalized and vulnerable minority groups in society is usually also rejected by right-wing populist actors, who rally against universal health care (Ammar 2018 ; Greer 2017 ; Speed and Mannion 2020 ) and often reject regulations on health risks like smoking (Falkenbach and Heiss 2021 ; Greer 2017 ) with a focus on promoting responsibility of the individual for remaining healthy. Although the AfD lacks a clear health policy (Wacker and Kieslich 2021 ), the notion of individualism and the rejection of the need to protect vulnerable individuals has been a central issue in the AfD’s stance on the COVID-19 pandemic since late March 2020 (Lembcke 2021 ).…”