The Role of the Medical Profession in the Formulation and Execution of Public Policy

Abstract

The role of “interest” or “pressure” groups in the United States congressional system has been subjected to analysis by American political scientists for at least three decades, but it is only in the last four or five years that studies have appeared of their role in the British cabinet system, and only one major study of an interest group has appeared in Canada. This disparity in interest is the result no doubt of the more vocal and widespread manifestation of the influence of pressure groups in the wide-open congressional system, but one has the uncomfortable feeling that their less obtrusive role in the cabinet system has been equated with a lesser importance in the political process.Like the sociologist, the political scientist may be interested in groups as organizational or power systems, in the sense that they are private governments, or he may extend or even limit his interest to the relations of these private governments with each other and with public governments, particularly in the manner and extent of their influence on public policy. For the political scientist concerned with public administration, interest will be extended to the role, if any, played by groups in the execution of public policy. From all three aspects, the medical profession as an interest group is a happy choice for examination, for not only does it provide insights into private government, and have a major influence on public policy, but it seems safe to state that in Canada, at least, no other private group is as deeply involved in public administration, and this despite the fundamental antipathy between the healing arts and bureaucracy.