Abstract
During the years around 1990, several policy and economic events occurred which had significant effects on the Swedish society. In this context, critique against the welfare state grew and the traditional roles of the state and the individual were challenged. The legitimacy and efficiency of Swedish alcohol policy was also called into question. The article describes and analyses how portrayals of alcohol, alcohol problems and alcohol policies have changed during the 1990s in the Swedish press. Despite the growth of media like television and the Internet, the daily press must still be considered an important source of information and also an active constructor of reality. The analysis is based on different samples of press articles during the studied period. Special attention is paid to different actors/narrators, their argumentation and how they perceive the individual and the state as legitimate actors and controllers of our drinking habits. The analysis shows that the dominant restrictive alcohol discourse, based on the total consumption model, public health perspectives and universal and restrictive alcohol policy measures, gradually has been challenged by a liberal discourse in which individual freedom, market liberalism and consumer perspectives are put forward as guiding principles for alcohol policies. A ‘sensible drinking’ perspective has seriously weakened the traditional perspective where alcohol- related problems have been situated as the legitimate foundation for policies. Finally, the ongoing redefinition of the alcohol issue also has made it possible for new narrators, for instance, business representatives, to take part in and significantly influence the alcohol discourse.