ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the range of theoretical approaches on offer and, using examples from the health field, makes the case for adopting a particular approach to the professions. This is a politicised view of professions in so far as it infers that these groups use political power to advance their own interests against their rivals. The neo-Weberian perspective also considers the structural and historical dimensions of professions and professionalisation at a wider sociopolitical level. The success of the medical profession in the UK was sealed by such factors as political support from the developing pharmaceutical industry and divisions in the ranks of complementary and alternative medicine practitioners themselves. However, most fundamental to the professionalisation of medicine was the backing of the state. This also enabled the medical profession at a later stage to subordinate or limit the authority of potential rivals in the health field, through their incorporation into orthodox health care but under the power and direction of medicine.
