The Political Power of Bad Ideas: Networks, Institutions, and the Global Prohibition Wave / Mark Lawrence Schrad
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The Political Power of Bad Ideas This page intentionally left blank The Political Power of Bad Ideas Networks, Institutions, and the Global Prohibition Wave Mark Lawrence Schrad 1 2010 1 Oxford University Press, Inc., publishes works that further Oxford University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education. Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With offi ces in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Copyright © 2010 by Oxford University Press, Inc. Published by Oxford University Press, Inc. 198 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016 www.oup.com Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Oxford University Press. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Schrad, Mark Lawrence. The political power of bad ideas: networks, institutions, and the global prohibition wave / Mark Lawrence Schrad. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-19-539123-7 1. Policy sciences—Case studies. 2. Culture diffusion—Political aspects— Case studies. 3. Prohibition. 4. Temperance. 5. Globalization—Case studies. I. Title. J F 1525.P6S37 2010 320.6—dc22 2009023027 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper To my parents—Dale and Paula—with love and gratitude. This page intentionally left blank Acknowledgments Most books begin by listing the author’s accumulated intellectual debts and the various institutions that have fi nancially supported their far-fl ung aca- demic endeavors. I’d like to buck that trend by thanking fi rst and foremost the U.S. housing bubble, without which this current book could not have been possible. When it became painfully obvious that a multicountry, mul- tiregional, comparative archival investigation did not meet the funding requirements of the usual foundations, the only source of funding for the required fi eldwork became a second mortgage on our modest Madison bun- galow, which by mid-decade was annually appreciating in value more than I was actually earning as a lecturer at the University of Wisconsin. We could not have capitalized on this opportunity were it not for my par- ents, who have given more of themselves than anyone I know. My father, Dale was always there with an encouraging word and has taught me some of the most important skills I now possess—framing, drywalling, tiling, electrical, and household repair. My mother, Paula, was always willing to drop whatever she was doing to move in with us and help take care of the family while I was researching, writing, or conducting fi eldwork out of the country. I’ve never heard of someone helping out quite like this—but then again, I’ve never known anyone more caring than her. Thank you. This book is very much a Schrad brothers’ production: my brother Dan provided the cover design, while my other brother, Kent, aided with editing and indexing. All complaints associated with either aspect should be accordingly directed to them. My wife, Jennifer, is truly the unsung hero of this story. Not only did she have the responsibility for bringing-home the bacon with a “real job” during our years in Madison, now she has the exhausting task of raising our won- derful children—Alexander, Sophia, and Helena—while dad is holed-up in a distant offi ce, or a cold, damp, unfurnished basement. I will never be able to fully convey my deep love, appreciation, and adoration for you. I owe a longstanding intellectual debt to Murray Feshbach, who taught me early on that the most interesting political questions are those basic issues of life and death that impact people on a daily basis. I am likewise viii Acknowledgments indebted to my former dissertation committee, most notably Mark Beissinger, whose continuing insight and assistance, though often from afar, have been invaluable. Byron Shafer provided a great deal of inspiration and encouragement to a latecomer to the world of American political stud- ies, and Jon Pevehouse anchored my work on transnationalism into a solid IR context. John Witte and Ted Gerber gave insightful comments through- out the manuscript. I also benefi ted tremendously from conversations with Scott Gehlbach, Nadav Shelef, Barry Burden, Orfeo Fioretos, Ed Friedman, Crawford Young, and Ann Fishback-Rivlin, while Joel Rivlin, John Coleman, Graham Wilson, Frank Baumgartner, and Bryan Jones, offered constructive feedback on American policy development. Paul Hutchcroft always lent an ear to my concerns and helped schedule teaching arrangements around my duties as a new father, while Deb McFarlane, Marilyn Price, Debbie Bakke, Tammi Kuhl, Diane Morauske, and J. D. “Drew” Stathus all provided invalu- able assistance during my time in North Hall. I need to thank Kate Weaver and Mike Mosser for guiding me up that hill in the fi rst place. Upon relocat- ing to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, I have benefi ted immensely from the friendship and kindness of Jeremy Duff, Bill Bernhard, Paul Diehl, Mark Steinberg, Jose Antonio Cheibub, Zach Elkins, Carol Leff, Tracy Sulkin, John Vasquez, Marie Henehan, Joe Hinchliffe, Denise Davis, Margarita Ham, and Brenda Stamm. In Sweden I would like to thank above all Tove Lindén for her gracious hospitality and stimulating intellectual conversation. I also appreciate the assistance and insight provided by Dr. Robin Room and his staff at the Centre for Social Research on Alcohol and Drugs (SoRAD) at Stockholm University, and the library at the Centralförbundet för alkohol- och narko- tikaupplysning (CAN). The archivists at the Riksarkivet, both at Marieberg and Arninge, as well as the Arbetarrörelsens arkiv och bibliotek and Kugliga biblioteket in Stockholm all provided wonderful services despite my broken Swedish. In helping me to understand the particularities of Swedish politics and temperance history, I am especially indebted to conversations with Bo Rothstein, Per Frånberg, and Lennart Johansson. Partial funding for my Swedish fi eldwork was graciously provided by the Consulate General of Sweden and a fellowship from the American-Scandinavian Foundation, as well as the Vilas Travel Grant through the University of Wisconsin. In Moscow, I am forever grateful to Georgia, Andrew, and Elizabeth Williams and to the Russian Orphan Opportunity Fund (ROOF)—whose impassioned work with Russia’s neediest borders on saintly—for their won- derful hospitality that made my Russian fi eldwork possible, and heaven for- bid, even enjoyable. I also feel compelled to mention the assistance of the librarians at the State Archives of the Russian Federation, the Russian State (Lenin) Library, and the Russian State Archive of the Economy. I would Acknowledgments ix especially like to thank David McBride and Oxford University Press for allowing this project to ultimately see the light of day. Integrating the help- ful insights of the anonymous reviewers, Dave made this a much better book than it would have otherwise been; not in the least by saving it from the title I had originally given this project: a title so dismal and vile that it dare never again be repeated aloud. Finally, I would like to acknowledge the love and support of family and friends too numerous to mention—from Iowa to Washington, D.C., from Madison to Champaign and beyond. Of special note are the longstanding friendships that have supported our family from afar through diffi cult years, including Scott and Mary Schnabel, Brian Varney, Steven Hughes, and Chris Walker. Quinn Ernster once vowed that he would never buy a book that I had written unless it mentioned him by name somewhere in it. Hey, guess what . ? This page intentionally left blank Contents 1 Introduction 3 2 The Transnational Temperance Network 31 3 American Prohibition Reconsidered 62 4 Avoiding the Prohibition Pitfall in Sweden 88 5 The Surprising Rise and Tenacity of Russian Prohibition 118 6 International Infl uences on National Alcohol Policymaking 146 7 Transnational Activism and National Policymaking 186 Archival Sources 211 Notes 215 Index 277 This page intentionally left blank The Political Power of Bad Ideas This page intentionally left blank Chapter 1 Introduction There is no social movement in our day more amazing than the world-wide rebellion against rum domination. Who would have dreamed that autocratic Russia would so soon become a pro- hibition nation? Whiskey-ridden England, . France, and even Germany, have taken steps to check the liquor traffi c. Canada has outlawed the saloon from a number of her provinces. Newfoundland voted dry at an election last month. In our own country eighty per cent of the territory is dry and sixty-fi ve per cent of the people are living in districts where the saloon is no longer tolerated. What is the basis of this world-wide phenomena? Such world movements were never built on sand foundations. —Rev. A. C. Archibald, “Explaining the World-Wide Prohibition Phenomena” (1915) The prohibition of alcohol was a mistake—a historic policy gaffe and a political fi asco. In the language of policy studies, it was a “suboptimal” policy option: a bad idea when compared with the more effective alterna- tives available. Novelist, historian, and social critic H. G. Wells famously lampooned “the crowning silliness of making prohibition a part of the Constitution of the United States” as the Eighteenth Amendment begot rampant corruption, bootlegging, and crime, eroded respect for law, and eliminated a valuable stream of government revenue by decimating an entire industry while miserably failing to achieve its purported aims of national sobriety, economic productivity, and communal moral salvation.