The Politics of Alcoholism

Building an Arena Around a Social Problem

Carolyn Wiener

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2023
• eBook ISBN: 9781000948189
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Sciences sociales
• Subtopic: Sociologie

The Politics of Alcoholism can be read on one level as a fascinating history of the evolving politics of what this country is doing about "the problem of alcoholism." Not so long ago that problem was scarcely larger than a human hand against the horizon, but now it makes good, regular newspaper copy. This text follows through on the much-raised question of how a social problem becomes defined as a large scale problem, when the same phenomenon x Preface now labeled as "a problem" was not so named before. What is offered here is a direct attack on the rise into public visibility of something previously the concern of a relatively small number of people and groups, and which gets defined along the way as a problem for the whole nation. The second issue addressed is closer to the political scientist's traditional interest, namely the politics of handling public issues: research and theorizing here usually focus on interest groups, lobbying, public debate, legislative rights, constituencies, and so on.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Dedication
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• PART I: INTRODUCTION AND APPROACH TO THE PROBLEM
• PART II: ANIMATING THE PROBLEM
• PART III: LEGITIMIZING THE PROBLEM
• PART IV: DEMONSTRATING THE PROBLEM
• Appendix A: Method
• Appendix B: Classification of Sources of Data
• Appendix C: Glossary of Acronyms
• Bibliography
• Index