Liberties and licences

Abstract

This article looks at the ways in which discourse around alcohol has shaped, and been shaped by, British liberal thought. It discusses three key moments in which alcohol became prominent in public debates over individual rights, market freedoms and government intervention: the London ‘gin craze’, mid-19th-century arguments over the ‘Permissive Bill’ and recent concerns over ‘binge drinking’ and the 2003 Licensing Act. In addition to looking at how liberal debates have shaped government alcohol policy, this article considers how liberal definitions of rationality, value and moral autonomy have shaped wider discourses on the meaning and legitimacy of intoxication. It argues that alcohol consumption (and, more generally, intoxication) has historically brought fissures and contradictions within liberal thought to the surface and that many of the complexities and divisions within liberalism can be illustrated through an analysis of liberal debates on alcohol. It also calls for a strategic re-engagement with liberalism, in its own theoretical terms of reference, from within cultural studies as well as for a more sustained discussion of intoxication by liberal theorists.