Faculty Research Fellow Joseph Harris Discusses Recent Book on Universal Healthcare at Pardee Center Seminar

The Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future and the Institute for Health System Innovation & Policy hosted a seminar on September 25 with Joseph Harris, an Assistant Professor of Sociology and a Pardee Center Faculty Research Fellow, where he discussed his recent book, Achieving Access: Professional Movements and the Politics of Health Universalism.

In the book, published by Cornell University Press in 2017, Prof. Harris explores dynamics that made landmark universal healthcare and AIDS treatment policies possible in Thailand and Brazil but which led to prolonged struggle and contestation in South Africa. While conventional wisdom suggests that democratization empowers the masses, Harris draws attention to an under-appreciated dynamic: that democratization empowers elites from esteemed professions – frequently doctors and lawyers – who forge progressive change on behalf of those in need.