Abstract In an era when social policy priorities are subordinated to regressive capitalist agendas, sustaining collective commitments to social protection and social provision defines the front line of the battle for the good society. The conflict manifests itself across a range of arenas, but health is analytically archetypal. This introductory article for the special issue assumes the dynamics of the contradiction between the inherently collective character of health provision and capitalist insistence on using individual consumption valued in market prices to measure societal success. Left unchecked, the elite bloc whose agenda is defined by pursuit of the interests of capital will destroy existing social provision and protection, making societies, especially in the Global South, ugly places to live for ordinary citizens. The articles in this volume leave us with a challenge: how can we construct the oppositional agency necessary to expand and strengthen social provision and protection in an era of regressive capitalist domination?
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