Professions and Professional Service Firms

10 The medical profession, enterprise and the public interest

Mike Saks

Introduction

In this chapter, the role of the medical profession is analysed in the enterprise context in which doctors work in the public and private sector – with a particular focus on the United States and Britain, albeit with brief wider international referents in the modern world. The reason for the choice of countries is that the United States and Britain, while representing species of liberal democracies in the global economy, have different political philosophies – spanning from the more privatised, relatively free market principles of the United States, which gives greater emphasis to individual liberty, to the more mixed economy in Britain, with stronger but by ...