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Biomedical subjects

V Navarro

Publications and source records attributed to V Navarro.

At least 217 records · Page 12Linked to original sources
PubMed1980

Workers' and community participation and democratic control in Cuba.

This article is a historical and current analysis and description of the evolution of worker, community, and popular participation and democratic control in Cuba since 1958. It contains: (a) an analysis of the political developments in the Cuban Revolution that led to the establishment of direct forms of democracy at the work-place and in the community; (b) a detailed analysis and account of how workers participate and control the processes of production and distribution of goods and services; and (c) an in-depth account and analysis of how people living in neighborhoods, rural and urban districts, municipalities, and provinces control the different levels and branches of the state apparatus--People's Power--and also how they participate in the implementation--through mass organizations--of state policies. The responsibilites, modus operandi, and relationships of the Communist Party, the trade unions, and other mass organizations, and the organs of People's Power, are also described and analyzed. The opportunities and problems, successes and failures, and strengths and weaknesses of the Cuban road to socialism and democracy are detailed. It is concluded that the Cuban Revolution has enhanced democracy most dramatically through the Cuban people's substantial involvement, participation, and control of their own lives.

Civil Disorders↗
PubMed1980

Workers' participation and control in Italy: the case of occupational medicine.

This article sets forth a historical and current analysis of (a) the occupational health services in Italy; and (b) the political, economic, and social forces that determined them. Special focus is placed on the analysis of the events leading to the establishment in 1969 of forms of direct democracy at the workplace, i.e. workers' committees, and their consequences for the occupational health services. Also described and analyzed are the responsibilities and modus operandi of these committees in the creation and reproduction of scientific knowledge at the point of production. The relationship between the workers' committees, the "experts," and the institutions of medicine, as well as that between the workers' committees, political parties, and the trade unions, is also discussed. An update on the impact that recent political developments have had on these workers' committees concludes the article.

Community Participation↗
PubMed1978

The economic and political determinants of human (including health) rights.

This paper presents an analysis and critique of the U.S. government's current emphasis on human rights; and (a) its limited focus on only some civil and political components of the original U.N. Declaration of Human Rights, and (b) its disregard for economic and social rights such as the rights to work, fair wages, health, education, and social security. The paper discusses the reasons for that limited focus and argues that, contrary to what is widely presented in the media and academe: (1) civil and political rights are highly restricted in the U.S.; (2) those rights are further restricted in the U.S. when analyzed in their social and economic dimensions; (3) civil and political rights are not independent of but rather intrinsically related to and dependent on the existence of socioeconomic rights; (4) the definition of the nature and extension of human rights in their civil, political, social, and economic dimensions is not universal, but rather depends on the pattern of economic and political power relations particular to each society; and (5) the pattern of power relations in the U.S. society and the western system of power, based on the right to individual property and its concomitant class structure and relations, is incompatible with the full realization of human rights in their economic, social, political, and civil dimensions. This paper further indicates that U.S. financial and corporate capital, through its overwhelming influence over the organs of political power in the U.S. and over international bodies and agencies, is primarily responsible for the denial of the human rights of the U.S. population and many populations throughout the world as well.

Civil Rights↗
PubMed1978

The crisis of the western system of medicine in contemporary capitalism.

This article makes a critique of current interpretations of the crises of the western system of medicine and presents alternative explanations for those crises. It indicates that the crises of medicine--reflected in its ubiquitous problems of costs and ineffectiveness--are due to and reflect the crises of legitimation and capital accumulation of contemporary capitalism. The article is divided into six parts: the first two define the characteristics of the crises of western contemporary capitalism and of its system of medicine, with a critique of current theories which try to explain them. Parts three and four contrapose to these theories a Marxist interpretation of the crises, tracing their causes to the needs created by the process of capital accumulation and to the demands expressed by the working population. The needs and demands generated by Capital and Labor are intrinsically in conflict, and are realized in the daily practice of class struggle. The characteristics and consequences of that struggle for health and for the organization, content, and ideology of medicine are analyzed in the fifth part. This class struggle takes place within a political context in which Capital and its social expression, the bouregeoisie or corporate class, have the dominant influence on the organs of the State. The sixth part of the article shows how that dominance determines the nature of the State responses to the crises of medicine. A primary thesis of this paper is that social class, class struggle, capitalism, and imperialism are not passé categories, as most ideologists of capitalism postulate, but rather they are the most important paradigms for understanding the crises of the western system of power and its medicine.

Democracy↗
PubMed1978

[Amino acid composition in total proteins of strains of Entamoeba histolytica in axenic cultures].

In this paper we detail the amino acid composition of total protein hydrolyzates from trophozoites of two Entamoeba histolytica strains (HK-9:NIH and HM-2:IMSS) cultured axenically in TP-S-1 medium. Since we obtained nearly identical results in both strains, amino acid patterns may constitute an additional taxonomic criterion of the species. Our data are strikingly different from those found previously by other workers with total proteins from HK-9:NIH trophozoites cultured in a bacteria-conditioned medium; such difference emphasize the importance of axenic culture for the precise study of the chemical composition and metabolism of E. histolytica. Amino acid composition of total trophozoite proteins could be of use to attempt the design of a culture medium of defined amino acid content.

Amino Acids↗
PubMed1977

Social class, political power, and the state: their implications in medicine--part III.

This is the third part of an article on the distribution of power and the nature of the state in Western industrialized societies and their implications in medicine. Parts I and II were published in the preceding issue of this Journal. Part I presented a critique of contemporary theories of the Western system of power; discussed the countervailing pluralist and power of elite theories, as well as those of bureaucratic and professional control; and concluded with an examination of the Marxist theories of economic determinism, structural determinism, and corporate statism. Part II presented a Marxist theory of the role, nature, and characteristics of state intervention. Part III focuses on the mode of that intervention and the reasons for its growth, with an added analysis of the attributes of state intervention in the health sector, and of the dialectical relationship between its growth and the current fiscal crisis of the state. In all three parts, the focus is on Western European countries and on North America, with many examples and categories from the area of medicine.

Delivery of Health Care↗
PubMed1977

Social class, political powere, and the state and their implications in medicine.

This three-part article presents an analysis of the distribution of power and of the nature of the state in Western industrialized societies, and details their implications in medicine. Part I presents a critique of contemporary theories of the Western system of power; discusses the countervailing pluralist and power elite theories, as well as those of bureaucratic and professional control; and concludes with an examination of the Marxist theories of economic determinism, structural determinism, and corporate statism. Part II presents a Marxist theory of the role, nature, and characteristics of state intervention. Part III focuses on the mode of that intervention and the reasons for its growth, with an added analysis of the attributes of state intervention in the health sector and of the dialectical relationship between its growth and the current fiscal crisis of the state. In all three parts, the focus is on Western European countries and on North America, with many examples and categories drawn from the area of medicine.

Communism↗
PubMed1976

Social class, political power, and the state: their implications in medicine--parts I and II.

This three part article presents an anlysis of the distribution of power and of the nature of the state in Western industrialized societies and details their implications in medicine. Part I presents a critique of contemporary theories of the Western system of power; discusses the countervailing pluralist and power elite theories, as well as those of bureaucratic and professional control; and concludes with an examination of the Marxist theories of economic determinism, structural determinism, and corporate statism. Part II presents a Marxist theory of the role, nature, and characteristics of state intervention. Part III (which will appear in the next issue of this journal) focuses on the mode of that intervention and the reasons for its growth, with an added analysis of the attributes of state intervention in the health sector, and of the dialectical relationship between its growth and the current fiscal crisis of the state. In all three parts, the focus is on Western European countries and on North America, with many examples and categories from the area of medicine.

Economics↗
PubMed1976

The underdevelopment of health of working America: causes, consequences and possible solutions.

This article presents the health conditions of working America, and provides an analysis of the causes of that situation. It is postulated that the main health problems in the U.S. are due not to prevalent life styles-as the behavioralists indicate-but to the dramatic maldistribution of economic and political power in our society, with the absence of control by the majority of the U.S. population-the working and lower-middle classes-over the work process with which they are involved, the economic wealth that they produce, and the political institutions that they pay for. The production of goods and wealth as well as the political institutions of the United States are dominated and controlled by a minority of our population-the corporate and upper-middle classes. Empirical information is presented to support this postulate. In light of this explanation, it is asserted that a major public health task is to deliberately and actively contribute to the political mobilization of forces aimed at bringing about profound changes in the pattern of control of our working insitutions and of the distribution of wealth and political power, changes which seek to shift that control from the few to the many.

Environmental Exposure↗
PubMed1975

Women in health care.

The occupational, class, and sex structure of the United States Health Labor Force is similar to the competitive sector of the economy (i.e., it is predominantly female, poorly paid and poorly unionized). Upper-middle-class men compose the great majority of medical professionals, whereas lower-middle and working-class women form the greatest proportion of all middle-level, clerical and service workers. This division of labor is due to the role of women both in the family and as a reserve of labor for the economy. There is a virtual absence of the majority of producers--lower-middle-class and working-class women-- in the decision-making bodies of the health institutions. The political strategy for change is to introduce institutional democracy in the health sector, with control on the institutions by those who work in them--and those who are served by them.

Discrimination, Psychological↗
PubMed1975

The political economy of medical care. An explanation of the composition, nature, and functions of the present health sector of the United States.

This presentation provides an alternative explanation of the present composition, nature, and functions of the health sector in the United States to those frequently given in sociological, economic, and medical care literature. These expalantions usually maintain that the Amcerican health sector is a result of the value system of the assumedly middle class American society. In this presentation it is postulated that the present economic structure of the United States determines and maintains a social class structure, both outside and within the health sector, and that the different degrees of ownership, control, and influence that these classes have on the means of production, reproduction, and legitimization in the United States explain the composition, nature, and functions of the health sector. It is further postulated that the value system is not the cuase, but a sysmptom, of these class controls and influences. The paper is divided into three sections. The first part profices a description of the class structure, which includes the corporate class, upper middle class, lower middle class, and working class, and it describes the mechanisms whereby this structure is maintained and replicated, both outside and within the health sector. The second section analyzes: (1)the production characteristics and social make-up of the thre main sectors of the U. S. economy-the monpolistic, state, and competitive sectors-and it focuses especially on the monopolistic sector, which is assumed to be the dominant sector in the U. S. economy, with its needs determining to a large degree the functions of the social sectors, including those of the health sector; (2) the increasing dominance of the monopolistic sector in the health sector, by means of the financial institutions, which conflicts primarily with the providers'relative control of the financing of health services; and (3) the main conflict in the control of the reproductive (academic) an distributive (delivery) institutions which, it is postulated, is not, as is generally belived, between the providers and the so-called consumers, but rather between the corporate and upper middle classes (including the providers), who control those institutions, and the majority of the U. S. population, the lower middle and working classes, who do not control them...

Delivery of Health Care↗
PubMed1975

The industrialization of fetishism or the fetishism of industrialization: a critique of Ivan Illich.

This article critically assesses the ideology of industrialism in light of Ivan Illich's Medical Nemesis. The paper is divided into three sections. The first section is a description of the main features of that ideology, the most prevalent and influential one used in sociological literature to explain the state both of Western societies and of our health services. Also in this section, it is shown how these features appear in Illich's analysis of our societies, of our health services, and of the different clinical, social, and structural iatrogeneses that health services create. The second section examines the assumptions underlying Illich's analysis and discusses their validity to explain the nature and function of our Western health services and their iatrogenic effects. Where Illich's explanations are considered invalid, alternative explanations are presented. Among them, it is postulated that it is not industrialism, but the assumedly transcended category of capitalism that is the cause of the social and structural iatrogeneses. The third section discusses the political implications of Illich's analysis, in a moment when our Western societies are supposedly in crisis.

Community Participation↗