The Influence of History and Tradition on Public Health Strategies: A Nationally Comparative Approach to the AIDS Epidemic

Award Year: 2000	Investigator: Peter Baldwin	Budget: $151,519	Categories: Public Health Strategies, Comparative Healthcare Systems
Abstract: This project explores why the public health response to the AIDS epidemic has varied so greatly in industrialized nations. By setting the approach to the AIDS epidemic in a broader historical context, Dr. Baldwin analyzes the factors that have determined AIDS responses in five countries - the U.S., France, Germany, Britain and Sweden. The study considers: local political traditions, social composition (ethnic and class), mutual interactions and inflections of other policies with public health measures, the nature of the state imposing the preventive response, the social policy infrastructure, as well as the power and political influence of the various interest groups most directly affected by the epidemic. The results should shed light on the determinants of public health policy and their broader political implications.