Synopses & Reviews
When corporations claim the same citizenship rights as human citizens, they exercise an undue influence on health policy and democratic processes. Surprisingly, the same basic repertoire of tactics has been found to be employed by corporations to effect this influence, regardless of the specific industry at work. In this book, authors from around the world reveal the range of tactics used across the corporate world that ultimately favor the bottom line over the greater good.
The Bottom Line or Public Health deconstructs some of the most ubiquitous tactics at play, including public relations, political influence, legal maneuvering, and financial power, using the pharmaceutical, food and agriculture, tobacco, alcohol, and motor vehicle industries as illustration. However, there is a growing global movement to counter this corporate force. The book discusses the role of non-governmental organizations, indigenous peoples' groups, health advocates, and social justice activists, and the ways in which they are working to reduce corporate power and put control of policy back in the hands of individuals. The Bottom Line or Public Health is for scholars interested in studying the corporate entity, and for individuals and organizations who want to reclaim democracy for human citizens so that health is placed above the bottom line.
Review
"...well-written, informative, and enjoyable to read. It is a complex and detailed examination of an important issue affecting our health, and it is loaded with useful commentaries, statistics, and references. The editor should be commended for pulling together such a unique resource on global health policy. Future editions would benefit from the addition of a chapter on the positive aspects of corporate contributions to medicine and health through the creation of foundations and institutes. But overall, this book is highly recommended to
national and international academics and health policymakers who are at the forefront of the twenty-first-century transformation of medicine and public health.
--World Medical and Health PolicyR
"...Wiist is especially persuasive in arguing that "externalization of costs is a major corporate activity with a direct effect on human health and the natural environment" from effects as diverse as air and water pollution, to causing specific diseases, to avoidance of taxes and corruption of government officials. The book's contributors focus on five major corporate sectors that seem to have been especially damaging to the public's health: tobacco, alcohol, agribusiness, automobiles, and the pharmaceutical industry." --The Lancet
About the Author
Professor, Department of Health Sciences, Northern Arizona University
Table of Contents
Part 1: Introduction
Chapter 1: The Corporation: An overview of what it is, its tactics and what public health can do
William H. Wiist
Chapter 2: Corporations, Public Health and the Historical Landscape that Defines Our Challenge
Shelley K. White
Part 2: Corporate Tactics
Chapter 3: Limited Liability and the Public's Health
Lainie Rutkow and Stephen P. Taret
Chapter 4: Public Relations and Advertising
Diane Farsetta
Chapter 5: Lobbying, the Revolving Door, and Campaign Contributions.
The Center for Responsive Politics
Chapter 6: The Tobacco Industry
Ruth E. Malone
Chapter 7: The Pharmaceutical Industry
David Egilman and Emily Ardolino
Chapter 8: The Motor Vehicle Industry
Leon S. Robertson
Chapter 9: The Alcohol Industry: Alcohol industry interests, global trade agreements and their impact on public health
Donald Zeigler
Chapter 10: Food and Agriculture Industry
Judith A. Pojda
Part 3: Tactics to Counter the Corporation
Chapter 11: Using Charters to Redesign Corporations in the Public Interest
Charlie Cray
Chapter 12: A New Democracy in Action
Mari Margil
Chapter 13: Legal Strategies: You Are What They Say You Are Eating
Stephen Gardner and Kate Campbell
Chapter 14: Anti-corporate Social Movements: A Global Phenomenon
Thomas E. Mertes
Chapter 15: Labour Movement Strategies to Address Corporate Globalisation
Jane Lethbridge
Chapter 16: Campaigns to Change Health Damaging Corporate Practices
Nicholas Freudenberg
Chapter 17: Public Health Infrastructure
Rene Jahiel
Chapter 18: Indigenous Peoples' Movements
Raymundo D. Rovillos
Chapter 19: The New Politics of Consumption: Promoting Sustainability in the American Market Place
M.J. Cohen, A. Comrov, and B. Hoffner
Chapter 20: Spiritual Activism and Liberation Spirituality: Pathways To Collective Liberation
Claudia Horwitz and Jesse Maceo Vega-Frey
Appendix