Collective action and cooperation in the Unified Health System

Abstract

Although the principle of regionalization of health services is contained in official documents and guides the current organization of the Unified Health System, this process depends to a certain extent on collective action and cooperation between federated entities. Collective action and cooperation are considered elements of federal policies and social behavior. In this perspective, we sought to analyze how collective action and cooperation are addressed in the official documents of regulation and organization of health policies that deal with regionalization. It is a documentary analysis of 16 official norms, published between 1988 and 2018, and discussion of the theme, supported mainly by the collective and political institutional frameworks. For the analysis of official documents, the technique of content analysis was used. The results show that collective action and cooperation are addressed in official documents, especially by the words "solidarity" and "co-management", and that regionalization policies have a highly normative character. Its implementation will depend on coordination, coercion, and reward mechanisms, as well as aspects related to the management of services, such as balance between collective and individual interests, and the construction of social identities between managers with a view to co-management.

Keywords:
Regional Health Planning; Collective Action; Cooperation; Decentralization; Public Policy