ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how politics can be used to develop and promote play-based strategies within healthcare provision. It reviews the role of policy for developing innovative practice and how, in times of global fiscal restraint, play-based techniques have been used as a positive means of engaging people with the current health agenda at local, national and international levels. The term playing politics is defined as the use of a situation or the relationships between people for your own advantage'. These perceptions appear to be a far cry from the original roots of human politics associated with the Greek philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle. Aristotle viewed politics as a practical science since it is concerned with the noble action or happiness of the citizens'. Politics has a role to play and the World Health Organization clearly identifies the unfairness of health inequalities and state that these could be reduced by the right mix of government policies.
