This is a course about governments, interest groups and policy-making which proceeds from a review of the various theories of government-group relations to focus on the politics of health policy. In particular it examines government attempts to change unhealthy lifestyles against the backdrop of the sharp rise in the number of people who are harming and killing themselves as a consequence of the way they live. In the United States and across much of Western Europe there has been a startling increase in diabetes' cases whilst obesity has been described as a problem on the scale of climate change. The empirical part of the course will examine the role of the relevant policy actors - inter alia, ministers, departmental officials, doctors', nurses' and patients' associations - in devising and implementing strategies for tackling the soaring rates of obesity, cancer and alcohol misuse and the attendant costs to the state in terms of lost productivity and welfare payments caused by lifestyle-related conditions. The course is about life and premature death. Thus, bans and price rises may reduce smoking but are there known solutions to the alcohol and obesity epidemics? How can governments act without appearing to be a 'nanny state? How is 'lifestyle policy' formulated and what role in its gestation is played by the relevant policy actors? In short, the course will be of interest to students of policy analysis, the welfare state, pressure groups and the rightful relationship between governments and citizens. Should drunks be allowed to die in the streets as long as they do not block the drains? Case-studies will draw on the experience of the UK, Finland and Germany. The assessment would be project-based and tailored to individual students. Pre-registration will be essential.

Pre-registration via email (david.arter@uta.fi) by 19 October.

Indicative lectures for the course:

1. Drink, Drugs and Rock ‘n Roll: Introduction
2. Psychedelia, psychopaths and Narcocorridos: Drugs and Politics
3. Whisky Galore – No More? The Politics and Policy of the Scottish Drink Problem
4. ‘Ei tippa tapa’: the Road to Middle Beer
5. The ‘Koskenkorva index’ and the ‘Why’ question
6. Copy-cat Cameron follows the Jocks on minimum pricing
7. “It’s a person’s inalienable right to get shit-faced drunk” (Tanya Gold)
8. When Lifestyle becomes a Deathstyle: The Politics of the Obesity Epidemic in the United States
9. Will the US eventually ‘fight the fat’?
10. How is health policy made? The value of theoretical approaches