Background Social scientists have paid increasing attention to health technology
assessment (HTA). This paper provides an overview of existing social scientific literature on …

Theories of deliberative democracy are popular for their promise that in a deliberative polity,
democracy can realise both participatory politics and rational policies. However, they are …

This paper explores policy mechanisms behind New Zealand's remarkable track record of
cost containment in public pharmaceutical spending, contrasting with most other advanced …

Health technology assessment (HTA) is not simply a mechanistic technical exercise as it
takes place within a specific institutional context. Yet, we know little about how this context …

Explores the challenges and possibilities of long-term governance in democratic systems
This book brings together political philosophers, democratic theorists, empirical political …

Most developed democracies have faced the challenge of priority setting in health care by
setting up specialized agencies to take decisions on which medical services to include in …

Germany has lifted its total ban on Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD, a form of
genetic testing), but the new rules are still much stricter than those in other European …

This article identifies the interests and policy positions of key health policy stakeholders
regarding the creation of a health technology assessment (HTA) agency in the Czech …

The paper presents two cases of Europeanization in health policy–an area that has so far
been viewed as hardly affected by European integration. We show that even in the less …

Germany's bioethical legislation presents a puzzle: given structural factors, the country
should be at the forefront of reproductive medicine, but its embryology regime remains one …