COALITION THEORY AS A FRAMEWORK FOR UNDERSTANDING AND IMPLEMENTING INTERSECTORAL HEALTH-RELATED INTERVENTIONS

Although it is regarded as a central concept in the practice of health promotion, intersectoral health-related action (IHA) has, to date, fa iled more often than it has succeeded. In this paper we review relevan t social scientific literature offer a working definition of intersect oral action and explore the usefulness of coalition theory as a theore tical framework through which to understand IHA theoretically and prac tically. Coalition theory has been previously used to study political alliances but it encompasses a series of parameters pertinent to the a nalysis of IHA. These parameters are: the rewards people expect to gai n from participation in a coalition; the political assets they have to bring to the coalition; the non-utilitarian preferences they develop: the coalition's rules for decision-making; and the organisational con text in which the coalition operates. We used these five parameters to study three intersectoral endeavours in Quebec, one at the local leve l and two at the provincial level, including activities associated wit h the Healthy Cities movement. Coalition theory proved useful in unrav elling the mechanisms of these endeavours and appears promising as a t ool for studying and/or implementing intersectoral health-related inte rventions.