Seeing beyond the western experience. Comment on Chapter 15: The policy arena

Abstract

The authors are to be commended for calling our attention to the fact that liquor is an unusual market commodity. Any product that comes to the market acquires certain ethical properties in the hands of its seller, concentrated in its quality, price and advertising. The ethical aspect of alcohol as a commodity far transcends these bounds because its excessive consumption harms the nation's health and, moreover, the lives of its people. Hence the need for political regulation of the alcoholic market. Hence, too, the need for a book such as Alcohol: No Ordinary Commodity (Babor et al. 2003). Let us pass to Chapter 15, entitled ‘The policy arena’. The reviewer's duty is to see if all the main players in this arena have been identified, whether their place in the political arena is located correctly, whether the motivations of their behaviour are properly reflected and, of course, whether these initiatory motivations and the actual activity correspond to the humanitarian principles of contemporary society, considering that alcohol is no ordinary commodity. Lastly, to a most important part of the arena of alcoholic policy: how does society participate or not participate aside from public organizations in making this policy, for consuming alcohol is not only an economic, but also a powerful political lever in favour of one or another player on the alcoholic policy arena? It is safe to say that nearly all these points are reflected in Chapter 15. All I can take exception to is the placement of the accents on separate areas of the subject. It is certainly no fault of the authors and not only the authors, for that matter, but of all alcohology, that the alcoholic problems of those countries whose problems are less glaring are scrutinized far more profoundly. Possibly that is one more law of alcohology: the harder the alcoholic problems, the less they are studied. That is why, in the chapter discussed, the alcoholic policy of the developing countries and countries of the former Soviet Union are demonstrated more vaguely, merely as a brief appendix to the picture of the alcoholic political arena of western countries. Doubtless, there are common laws of alcohology or, more properly said, common rules of alcoholic policy, where western countries can be a useful model for countries of the third world. In the latter, however, there are many specific features not as yet clearly uncovered. The writers of ‘The policy arena’ hold that the chief subject [figure] in making alcoholic policy is the state, and that is absolutely true for western countries. It seems to me, however, that in the developing countries and states of the former Soviet Union the chief player, or player with an equal part on the arena of alcoholic policy, is not the state alone but business interests, often of a criminal nature. The rules of their game are especially severe, their political guidelines are wholly deprived of the humanitarian component and the political confrontation is often soaked with blood wherever it involves big money. However, the extreme forms of alcoholic policy came into conflict with the academic style of Chapter 15 and did not therefore merit admission to its text. There is another important aspect of the subject. How to evaluate the results of the chief players on the alcoholic political arena: (1) legislative acts or their absence and (2) changes in the level of consumption of alcoholic beverages in one or the other direction? Clearly, here we must take into account a broad spectrum of additional phenomena not only related to (1) and (2), but also beyond (1–2). I may be wrong, but it seems to me that this important subject is still poorly studied in alcohology. That is the reason why, probably, it was treated insufficiently in Chapter 15. Finally, a last point. The alcoholic political arena is never fenced off from general state policy. These two are not simply joined; one is part of the other: the rules of the game, the faults or merits of general policy pass on into the lesser. That is why improvement of the climate in alcoholic policy is inconceivable without an overhaul of state policy, and is probably the crucial feature of the alcoholic political arena. However, the subject is so extensive, and reaches so far beyond the limits of alcoholic problems, that it has every right not to be reflected in ‘The policy arena’ chapter.