Alcohol, Power And Public Health: A Comparative Study Of Alcohol Policy (Routledge Advances In Health And Social Policy) - 9780415637466

The World Health Organisation subscribes to a structural approach to reduce alcohol-related harm. Rather than targeting individuals, it recommends that governments should control consumption through a combination of pricing strategies, restrictions on retail availability and, possibly, the statutory regulation of the advertising of alcohol. This book uses a comparative approach to draw general policy lessons on the realities of shaping national alcohol policies along these lines. Alcohol Policy in Europeexplores the policy process by which evidence-based alcohol strategies are implemented at the level of individual states, in the context of the European Union. Providing a succinct and accessible summary of the WHO’s ideal, evidence-based national alcohol policy, it then compares it with a parallel EU policy process in which open border policies have contributed to reducing excise duties and lowering alcohol prices in EU member states. The book uses three case studies of countries – Denmark, England and Ireland – to investigate in detail how this attempt at rational policy diffusion is managed within differing policy cultures. Offering its own recommendations as to how governments might best balance public health interests against competing commercial interests and long-standing cultural practices, this book will be of interest to academics and researchers in public health, sociology, social policy and European Union studies.

• | Author: Shane Butler, Karen Elmeland, James Nicholls, Betsy Thom
• | Publisher: Routledge
• | Publication Date: Mar 02, 2017
• | Number of Pages: 214 pages
• | Language: English
• | Binding: Hardcover
• | ISBN-10: 0415637465
• | ISBN-13: 9780415637466