Eleventh International Conference on Health, Wellness & Society

Abstract

The World Health Organization defines health as a state of complete physical and psychological well-being and not just the absence of disease. We normally think of health as applying to individuals, but health can apply to social institutions as well. Society’s health demands wealthy institutions. The social institutions such as the state are created to perform important social functions. The state provides for the common good by providing public goods, regulating negative externalities, promoting collective action to solve social problems and dealing with the free rider problem as well as providing for protection, order and justice in society. Because of its overwhelming power position in society the state is uniquely positioned to perform these important social functions. If the state is unhealthy, society will go without these important functions being performed and will be unwell. (Because the state is also intimately involved in providing and/or guaranteeing health care in the traditional meaning of the term, to citizens, a healthy state helps in promoting healthy citizens.) This paper examines the health of the modern state in America utilizing a structural functional theoretical perspective. The overriding modality will be looking at the modern American state using a health model. In addition to diagnosing the problem, the paper offers suggestions for treatment.