I’ll drink to that: the little known story of how public administration

solved America’s liquor problem

(and why that’s important even if you don’t drink)

Presentation Agenda

Last Call for Alcohol Policy Proposal

1920-30s to Prohibition Era

18th Amendment: Anti-Saloon League

21st Amendment: Total Alcohol Control

Q & A

Things to Think Abouttake a shot each time you identify one of the following

PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION CONCEPTShow many fit?

Network TheoryChurches as nodes

Group TheoryPluralism (Dahl)

Interest Groups (Lindbloom)

Scientific ManagementIt was the sign of the times

Policy ProcessAgenda setting to termination:

its all in there

Elite TheoryRockefeller and Hearst know what’s best for you(because the Anti-Saloon and government don’t)

Implementation / EvaluationGulick’s Total Alcohol Controlmodels, adaptive guidelines

Rosenbloom’s Three PA FociProhibition was a problem with lawlessnessRegulation, the solution, promotes lawfulness

Post-MPA:Move beyond the moralistic mirechannel Gulick, develop reasonable programsend the busted war on drugs

3

2

1

5

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LAST CALL FOR ALCOHOLExtending state liquor service hours from 02:00 to 04:00

1San Francisco Late Night Coalition

Encroaching residential uses displace city’s core nightlife areas.Nightlife contributes to city’s culture and culture is under threat.Extended serving hours enhance viability of late night uses.

2

3

4

Develop Strategy, Attract SupportersFound a number of interested Board of Supervisors members. One sponsored economic impact study. Nightlife is a $5 billion business in San Francisco.

Engage Decision-makers, Adopt ResolutionBar, cabaret and nightclub operating hours stipulated by State law.Board passes symbolic measure urging Sacrament to devolve alcohol regulation – at least hours of operation – to local control.

Advance to Assembly: to DieFreshly-minted Assemblymen Leno proposes “home-rule” legislation.At committee hearing CHP officers, MADD members express concern.Fellow assembly members in Committee laugh at Leno.Walk out of chambers without so much a vote.

Policy Post-mortemwhy 04:00 was a bust

LIMITED COALITIONboutique issueno means to broaden Lacked call to action to compel mass engagement.

WHAT’S GOOD FOR SAN FRANCISCO…

BAR CLOSURE TIMES: NOT A PROBLEM

1

2

3Kingdon’s Policy Window

City-sponsored proposal for statewide lawNo broad stakeholder engagement No institutional support

Current system permissive enough to sustain orderMost simply comply with law and don’t feel change neededissue is not on policy agenda

PREVENTING BY LAW THE MANUFACTURE AND SALE OF ALCOHOL, ESP. IN THE U.S. 1920 – 1933

PROHIBITION

StakeholdersFormal Players

LAW ENFORCEMENTLEGISLATORS

BUSINESS ELITE ORGANIZED CRIME

TEATOTLERS

ADMINISTRATORS

Interests and InfluencesProhibition meant different things depending on whom you asked

LEGITIMACY, POWER

U.S. a nation of laws state authority undermined when citizens do not comply

Congress, Executive, State Legislatures

INDUSTRY, BUSINESS ELITE

Demanded skilled laborers to runmodern machinery

ORGANIZED CRIME

SOCIAL ORDER

enforce lawsfight crime

model behaviorprofit off corruption

MORALITY

Eliminate the saloon from working class life. Prohibition

as panacea to social ills.

control trade, turfaccumulate extreme wealth

employ violencedefraud and delegitimize state

bootleggers, speakeasy operators, gangsters

TeetotalersSociety of Reformed Drunkards, Women’s Temperance, Anti-Saloon League

Francis Willard, Carrie Nation

• Smash the saloon

• Alcohol source of moral weakness, ills

• Promoted complete prohibition

Anti-Saloon LeaguePrototype for the Modern Political Pressure

Group

Engage ChurchesMobilize

network of Protestant churches

Pay Organizersto campaign

and draft model laws and

ordinances

Back Candidateswho supported

prohibition, regardless of

party

Enlist BusinessGarner support

of business, corporate elite

01

02

03

04

Prohibition was offered as a panacea for real social and economic problems.

Elite TheoryCorporate and Business Interests

• Elite theory describes power relationships in society

• Small number of individuals hold disproportionate power

• Power derived from positions in business

• Many also members of policy think tanks or organizations where they wield influence

Concepts

James D. RockefellerWilliam Randolph Hearst

American business found it impossible to run modern machineswith drink-befuddled brains

SCOFFLAWsomeone who flagrantly ignores edict and drinks illegally produced liquor

LAW AND ORDEROrganized Crime

bootleggers. producers. distributors. money launderers. tax evaders. speakeasy operators.

\

15 million men out of work.

THE KEY ISALWAYS YOU!

The Association Against the Prohibition Amendment (the AAPA) was dominate in bringing about Prohibition’s repeal.

AAPA was led, organized, and financed by some of America’s wealthiest and most conservative men.

Believed if liquor taxes were restored, their business and personal income taxes would be significantly reduced.

Corporate rich turned against prohibition due to growing fear that disrespect for prohibition was producing widespread disrespect for all law, including property law.

TOTAL LIQUOR CONTROL

John D. Rockefeller, Raymond Fosdick, Luther Gulick

CLASSICAL THEORY

In many ways the classic theory was crude, presumptuous, incomplete, wrong in some of its conclusions, naive in its scientific methodology, parochial in its outlook. In

many ways it was the end of a movement, not the foundation for a science. Nevertheless, not only is the classical theory still today the formal working theory of large numbers of persons technically concerned with administrative-organizational

matters, both in the public and the private spheres, but I expect that it will be around a long, long, time (p. 37).

Classical theory views administration as a technical problem concerned basically with the division of labor and the specialization of function.

Waldo, Dwight. The Administrative State. New York: the Ronald Press Company, 1948.

Mutually Incompatible Values?David Rosenbloom

21

Political Approachprocedural due process: fairness, uniformity in process to protect against arbitrary and capricious acts of government; protection of substantive rights as embodied in Bill of Rights; and equity, interpreted as judicial fairness.

Legal Approach“business part of the government shall be carried out in a sound, businesslike

manner… with the utmost possible efficiency and at the least possible cost” in terms of money or energy.

(Wilson, 1887)

Managerial Approach

Efficiency, economy, effectiveness

controlling bureaucracy to make it responsive to constituents: representativeness, political responsiveness, accountability

The individual is seen as a unique individual with a unique set of circumstances entitled to his “day in court.”

Drugs ordered by their overall harm scoresCenter for Crime and Justice Studies (UK)

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10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

72

55 54

33

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A Challenge to My Fellow MPAers:

CHEERS, CONGRATULATIONS,

and THANK YOU!