Abstract
Jan Andersen: Changes in municipal alcohol control policies in Norway
Municipalities have an important role in enacting alcohol policy in Norway. The task of the local authorities is to implement the national goals and develop a locally adapted practice, mainly by controlling the availability of alcohol to the public. The local politicians experience this as an issue where they are exposed to a conflictual pressure between socio-political concerns, on the one hand, and business interests, on the other.
This paper focuses on alcohol policies in municipalities which give priority to business development; especially to tourism. It is based on the case studies of two Norwegian municipalities. The paper first looks at the actual changes in the alcohol policy in the two municipalities, and then at the decision-making process leading up to these changes. Four approaches for studying decision-making processes, inspired by Johan P. Olsens model, are used: rationality, legitimacy, power and necessity.
The study found a liberalisation with regard to the availability of alcoholic beverages in the two municipalities. This can be explained by: changes in external conditions, changes in influential positions between different actors, and changes in public attitudes towards alcohol and the politician's interpretations of the local authorities' ability to control the consumption of alcohol within the population.
At the same time, the local authorities have strengthened efforts to control the license holders. This can be seen as a result of demands from the national authorities, and due to the fact that this activity may be financed by annual fees payed by the license holders. The combination of the liberalisation of the license policy and the strengthening of the control of the license holders may also be seen as a compromise between different political attitudes, but one in which the business interests take more precedence than socio-political concerns.
The local politicians also underlined the importance of information activity aimed at influencing attitudes towards alcohol. This last means is characterised by a legitimating function and almost completely restricted to rhetorics. It would seem that this is more symbolic politics than anything else.
As a whole, the study emphasises those mechanisms which indicate that the consequence of a decentralisation of power to the local authorities will result in a more uniform liberal politics rather than greater locally based differences.