Enhancing our understanding of the commercial determinants of health: Theories, methods, and insights from political science

• Published in: Social science & medicine (1982) Vol. 301; p. 114931
• Main Author: Gómez, Eduardo J.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Elsevier Ltd 01-05-2022; Pergamon Press Inc
• Subjects: Case studies; Causality; Commercial determinants of health; Corporate political activity; Efficacy; Government; Group activities; Health care policy; Health policy; Health status; Inference; Methodological approaches; Policy making; Political participation; Political science; Political science theories; Politics; Public health; Qualitative research; Search engines; Tactics; Theory; Understanding; Corporate political activity; Politics; Health policy; Commercial determinants of health
• ISSN: 0277-9536; 1873-5347
• DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2022.114931

Public health researchers concerned with the commercial industry's influence over health policy have contributed to the development of a new field of inquiry, Corporative Political Activity (CPA). While the CPA literature has improved our understanding of the tactics that industries use to influence health policy and outcomes, ironically, this literature appears to have fallen short of thoroughly engaging those social science disciplines focusing on the relationship between industry and government in the policymaking process, such as political science. The purpose of this article is to reveal how political science theory and method can generate new research questions for CPA scholars; propose alternative qualitative methodological approaches to causal inference, with a focus on historical and temporal analysis; and establish adequacy in causal mechanisms. The application of political science theories and methods may assist CPA researchers in their efforts to explain the durability and efficacy of CPA political tactics at the domestic government level, which of these tactics are more important, while providing greater depth into explaining how and why industries continue to obstruct policymaking. The author then propose an alternative political science analytical framework, Political Analysis of Corporate Political Activity (PACPA), that may provide a more thorough understanding of the politics of the commercial sector's policy influence. This framework integrates the political science literature highlighting the political and institutional contexts shaping interest group activities and policymaking influence along with the CPA literature discussing these issues, through a historically-based qualitative case study approach emphasizing the causal mechanisms behind industry's political activities. With respect to methodology, this article relied on an analysis of qualitative documents through a variety of on-line search engines and the author's extensive knowledge of the topic. Select case studies were used as illustrations supporting the author's claims. This research began in November 2020 and concluded in June 2021.
•Political science provides alternative insights on corporate political activity.•Political science provides distinct methodologies for corporate political activity.•An alternative analytical framework is submitted on industry policy influence.