Global social policy in the field of health systems : international organisations and their policy models.

This thesis is a discussion of some fundamental elements of global social
policy concepts. The dimension of global social policy that is about the
social policy models of global actors has been characterised by primarily
referring to pension policy. Analysing global policy ideas of national health
systems, this thesis tests to what extent these definitions and concepts of
global social policy hold true when taking into account policy models other
than for pension policy.
The analysis focuses on a number of international (inter-governmental)
organisations that appear as global social policy actors in the field of health
systems, most notably the World Health Organisation (WHO), the World
Bank, the International Labour Organisation (lLO) and the Organisation for
Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Based primarily on a
detailed document analysis, the thesis is structured to study, and to compare,
the organisations' mandates as global health actors, the models for health
systems developed by these organisations, and their communication
channels. The characterisations of the global policy models of health
systems are then compared to those for pension systems and related to more
general understandings of global social policy.
The key arguments developed in this thesis are that (l) not all social policy
fields are characterised by the same structures and processes; that (2) not all
social policy fields are about competition and contestations, but for models
of health systems, we find a significant degree of similarity between the
models promulgated by international organisations; and that (3) global
social policy analysis would benefit from more nuanced ways of
understanding the nature of its actors, the specifics of its ideas and concepts,
and the implications of different communication channels.