Swedish alcohol and restaurant policy in the 1980s: A historical perspective

This article discusses factors contributing to the rapid proliferation of restaurants in Sweden in the 1980s and to the current tension between restrictive legislation, legal praxis and public alcohol culture. Transformations in towns and in public life, the transition from modernity to post-modernity, the emergence of a new middle class and the redefinition of women's use of alcohol were among the important changes. Departures from the traditionally strict control of restaurants were made in the late '50s and in the early '60s. Competititon grew and Swedish restaurant culture loosened up. In the 1980s, the restrictive laws governing restaurants began to lose legitimacy. Legal praxis was applied in a more liberal spirit. The Stockholm Water Festival, which allowed central parts of the city to be transformed into a gigantic beer hall, is one example of this. As in many other countries, age limits have become almost the only actual restriction to the availability of alcohol. The aim of alcohol and especially restaurant policy today is on minimization of damage, not protection, as formerly.