Abstract

Mika Alavaikko & Esa Österberg: Increased power of alcohol-related industries in Finland in the 1990s

From 1932 to 1995, the Finnish alcohol control system was based on the State Alcohol Monopoly. The purpose of the monopoly was to prevent profit-making from the production and sales of alcoholic beverages; however, exceptions were made from the very beginning regarding beer and wine production and on-premises retail licences of alcoholic beverages. Consequently, the private profit-seeking sector played a part in the formation of Finnish alcohol policy right after the prohibition era.

This article does not discuss the whole post-prohibition period; it focuses on more recent trends, concentrating on the interests and alcohol policy measures of alcohol industries in Finland in the 1990s. It examines alcohol-related industries, their alcohol policy interests and the persons supervising those interests at the outset of the 1990s, before Finland signed the treaty of the European Economic Area and joined the European Union. The article also presents an analysis of the efforts of people representing alcohol business interests in the parliamentary discussion of the 1994 Alcohol Act. Finally, the article deals with alcohol industries and their alcohol policy interests during the time the 1994 Alcohol Act has been in force.

We started with the hypothesis that the influence of alcohol-related business interests over alcohol policy has strengthened in Finland in the 1990s. The materials also lend support to this assumption. Private traders in the alcohol industry have not, however, increased their sway over alcohol policy in a straightforward way in the 1990s. The parliamentary proceedings on the 1994 Alcohol Act gave private economic interests an opportunity to influence the shape of the future area of operations, and in 1994 business interests succeeded in pushing through many proposals. Since then, their influence over alcohol policy seems to have weakened.