Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book focuses on the nature of capitalism and imperialism and on the political and economic determinants of the underdevelopment of health and of health services. It analyzes the impact of the multinational corporations on the health of the populations. A new series of explanations have appeared in the centers of orthodoxy that attribute the underdevelopment of health in underdeveloped countries to an absence of not physical but intellectual resources. Technological transfer has become the “name of the game,” the “in” thing in circles of development. That technological transfer has taken many different forms in medicine and public health, from Flexnerian transfer to nutritional aid. Examples are many of the mobilization of public opinion against revolutionary forces that are opening the doors of justice.