Evidence-based politics: how successful have government reviews been as policy instruments to reduce health inequalities in England?

摘要

British philosophers and political economists have a long history of engagement in the cause of equity and justice. Adam Smith in his Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations argued that progressive taxation is a vital ingredient in the creation of a fair society (Smith, 1776). In 1780, Jeremy Bentham, the political philosopher, dreamt presciently that he was being worshipped as the founder of the sect of utilitarianism and indeed his voluminous writings are now the basis of liberal economics. Yet Jeremy Bentham said, "All inequality is a source of evil, for by the inferior more is lost in the account of happiness than is gained by the superior" (cited in Parekh, 1973, p.41).