Constitutional Choices: The Ratification of the Twenty-First Amendment through State Conventions

Abstract

The factors that weigh into the choices groups make about pursuing their policy goals legislatively, administratively, or judicially is a matter of great scholarly debate. The 21st Amendment, which repealed the eighteenth amendment and is the only amendment ratified by state conventions, offers a unique opportunity to determine why groups and politicians chose that method of ratification. In this paper, I trace the evolution of the 18th and 21st Amendments. What factors led to the decision to choose the state convention path? It especially matters because the decision to ratify the constitution through the 21st Amendment has affected alcohol policy throughout the states (through the uneven development of the beverage industries and beverage distribution politics) and has implications for the normative debate over whether the US is in need of a Constitutional Convention.