ABSTRACT

Denmark is one of five Nordic countries – Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark – whose political cultures over the past century have shared many common features, particularly in relation to welfare state developments. However, while Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden retained relatively restrictive alcohol policies following their early-twentieth-century experiences with Prohibition, Denmark has always maintained liberal alcohol policies and Danish political culture has never been supportive of ‘dry’ alcohol control strategies. Concerns about alcohol consumption and related problems have generally not excited public interest in Denmark to the same extent as in the other Nordic countries, and the alcohol question has not featured regularly or prominently on the political agenda. During the comparatively few parliamentary and other political debates which have dealt with this topic, usually it has been argued that Denmark’s alcohol policy should continue to be based upon liberal prevention strategies, such as education and awareness-raising, rather than on control strategies. Denmark is also one of the few European countries that still do not have a national alcohol action plan as recommended by WHO. The aim of this present chapter is to review the historic background to Denmark’s alcohol policy – tracing the major issues and events over the last few centuries to the early 1990s.