A Healthy Democracy? Evidence of Unequal Representation Across Health Status

Pacheco, Julianna; Ojeda, Christopher

doi:10.1007/s11109-019-09541-0

Cited by 16 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 55 publications

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“…For the functioning of a democratic system, it is important to take into account health-related differences in participation, as these inequalities tend to easily transform themselves into inequalities in representation. There is already some evidence that this is happening in the USA (Pacheco and Ojeda, 2019) and further studies are needed in other countries. Figure 3.…”

Section: Conclusion and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Does poor health mobilize people into action? Health, political trust, and participation

Mattila

2020

Eur. Pol. Sci. Rev.

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Recently, awareness of the importance of health in explaining political participation has grown considerably. Studies have focused on individual participation forms but not on broader participation modes. Furthermore, analyses of the mechanisms explaining the health effects have been lacking. Here, structural equation models are employed to study the relationship between health, political trust, and institutional and non-institutional participation using data from Finland. Poor health is related to increased non-institutional participation, while good health boosts traditional institutional participation, although the latter relationship is very weak. These observations are explained by differences in political trust. Those in good health have stronger trust in the political system, while poor health is connected with reduced trust. These differences manifest themselves in varying behaviour. Poor health decreases trust which leads to increased non-institutional participation, while good health leads to a high trust and institutional activities.

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Section: Conclusion and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…If this is the case, increasing levels of health problems may have implications for the functioning of the whole representative democracy. In the end, it is a question of how well the interests of different health groups are represented in the decision-making process (see Pacheco and Ojeda, 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Does poor health mobilize people into action? Health, political trust, and participation

Mattila

2020

Eur. Pol. Sci. Rev.

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“…Although a lot more needs to be done, the message from previous research is clear: there is a mental health-participation gap and this gap is worrisome because it is likely to lead to inequality in policy representation and to carry serious implications for mental illness stigma. Yet no extant research investigates policy representation on mental health (but see Pacheco and Ojeda (2019) on inequality in policy congruence on health in the United States), a gap that is even timelier to fill in response to Lancet Psychiatry's recent call for action on multidisciplinary research on mental health (Holmes et al, 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mental Health and Political Representation: A Roadmap

Bernardi

2021

Front. Polit. Sci.

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Research on health and political behavior has identified a significant mental health-participation gap that is likely to have important consequences for political equality. Yet such consequences remain by and large unexplored. Inspired by 60 years of empirical research on public opinion, media and policy, this article proposes a roadmap for research on the political representation of mental health. It advances a number of research questions around 1) opinion formation and issue emergence and evolution, 2) multiple and complementary societal signals that can influence policy makers’ issue attention and policy change, and 3) different conceptions of representation and their consequences for public attitudes and political participation. The article also provides a preliminary attempt at addressing whether mental health spending incorporates signals from public preferences for spending on mental health services or policy problems. Making use of time-series data on spending on mental health services by local authorities in England between 1994 and 2013, the analysis finds no statistical association between spending and policy problems and reveals a negative relationship between spending and public preferences, suggesting that if spending is reacting at all to preferences, it misrepresents them. This article invites scholars to collect more data and produce more research that will guide interventions to help overcome stigma and participation challenges that undermine political equality as one of the key principles of democracy.

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“…For example, Rodriguez et al [101] noted that excess mortality among the African-American population reduced the 2004 Black voting-age population by approximately 1.7 million, and as much as 3.9 million if incarceration is considered [102]. A similar phenomenon exists among those in poor health [103]. Neiman et al [104] suggested that traditional "at the polls" voting is more stressful, as measured by increases in cortisol levels, such that mail-in ballots may increase political participation among individuals who are sensitive to social stressors and thus underrepresented in the current voting system.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Elections have Consequences: Partisan Politics may be Literally Killing Us

Maas

2020

Appl Health Econ Health Policy

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A Healthy Democracy? Evidence of Unequal Representation Across Health Status

Cited by 16 publications

References 55 publications

Does poor health mobilize people into action? Health, political trust, and participation

Does poor health mobilize people into action? Health, political trust, and participation

Mental Health and Political Representation: A Roadmap

Elections have Consequences: Partisan Politics may be Literally Killing Us

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