Date of Award

2017

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Social Sciences

First Advisor

Fitzgerald, Keith

Area of Concentration

Political Science

Abstract

This purpose of this research is to analyze the role of the pharmaceutical industry as a political player in the development of healthcare systems, namely the United States. A portfolio thesis, this project is broken up into three chapters and a synthesis which elaborate on different, but infinitely intertwined topics. The first is an American Political Development paper on the development of the United States healthcare system, and the role of interest groups. The second is an analysis of the pharmaceutical industry’s political power, and how that power translates to policy that is unequivocally beneficial to the industry. The third chapter compares the relationships between state and trade groups in the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, and Switzerland. The final paper seeks to tie these papers together and come to conclusions as to how the pharmaceutical industry is so powerful in the United States.

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