Comparative scholarship on health systems has largely relied on institutional approaches, based mainly on the public–private divide. This article argues that political dynamics are central to understanding the shaping and evolution of health systems. France offers a particularly instructive case due to the complexity of its system: intertwined public-private mix, changing modes of governance, persistence of historically rooted arrangements and institutional disjunctures. Drawing on policy tracing, with attention to critical realism, and conducting a contextual and historical analysis, the article shows how actor configurations, power resources, ideological conflicts and political crises have structured the French health system over time. The introduction presents the characteristics and paradoxes of the French system, which this article contributes to explain. The following two sections trace the separate institutionalisation of the two key policy actors: first, the nineteenth-century formation of the medical profession, structured as a national scientific elite, local political notability, and a corporatist organisation ; second, the belated and contingent construction of a national health insurance system, confronted with the resistance of organised medical liberalism. The third section analyses how the power relationship between the medical profession and the government have evolved after a major change of the political regime (Vth Republic) and pressure from economic and social challenges, such as modernizing hospital infrastructure, universalising access and containing expenditure. It shows growing government leadership, and yet limited statecraft over parts of health sector. The conclusion points to the interest of long-term policy tracing, as a method that allows to uncover underlying power structures and identify the causal factors of change, an approach applicable to other national cases.

Background
The post–World War II institutional order that structured social protection and public health governance is under sustained strain, yet no coherent alternative has consolidated. Planetary, technological, and social transformations are simultaneously reshaping who lives, who receives care, and whose suffering is normalized. Political configurations are now more decisive for health and health equity than at any point in the postwar period.
Problem
Scholarship on health politics remains fragmented across disciplines, theoretically under-developed in its treatment of power relations, and methodologically limited in its capacity for causal inference. Existing journals either publish health politics research as a secondary concern within broader portfolios or lack the editorial infrastructure to integrate the theoretical and methodological traditions the field requires. No journal currently centres theories of power and institutions as applied to health.
Aim
To establish Health Politics as a dedicated, interdisciplinary journal for rigorous, policy-relevant research that explains how power, institutions, and political conflict shape health and health equity.
Approach
The journal bridges political science, political economy, political sociology, and public health. It is anchored in the political economy of health tradition while engaging theories of power, institutions, and political processes from across the social sciences. It combines methodological pluralism with a quantitative edge, emphasizing causal inference alongside qualitative depth and comparative analysis.
Illustrative cases
Four current examples demonstrate how politics shapes health under crisis conditions: the politicization of vaccination policy, war and humanitarian restrictions in Gaza, climate disaster response in Canada, and platform power and adolescent mental health in EU and United States. Each case reveals distinct political mechanisms through which power produces health consequences.
Contribution
A new scholarly home for power-aware, methodologically rigorous health research that fills a structural gap in the journal landscape and provides an interdisciplinary platform for the emerging field of health politics.

Citations

• Introducing Health Politics
  Haejoo Chung, Carles Muntaner
  Health Politics.2026; 1(1): e001.     CrossRef
• Mapping “Health Politics”: Two Conceptual Traditions, 1976–2025
  Haejoo Chung, Gunah Kim, Hyunbee Shim, Jaehyuck Byun, Kibeum Kwon, Yebin Ahn, Jaeho Gwak
  Health Politics.2026; 1(2): e008.     CrossRef
• Healthcare Politics in Japan: Differentiated Policy Dynamics across Multiple Arenas
  Ryozo Matsuda
  Health Politics.2026; 1(2): e011.     CrossRef