PROIBITIONISM. – In its modern meaning, this term denotes legislation aimed at prohibiting the consumption of alcoholic beverages through bans on their sale and, at times, on their production and transportation, in order to address the various individual and social problems created by intemperance.
Australia, Canada, Denmark, Iceland, Norway, New Zealand, Russia, South Africa, Sweden, and Turkey resorted to this method in forms of p. that were more or less radical. The most complete and important application of this method was, however, that carried out by the United States of America, which adopted it on a national (federal) scale for fourteen years, after almost a century of local p. and p. in the individual states.
The history of American p. dates back to the beginning of the nineteenth century. Initially, it took the form of a temperance movement, conducted by numerous associations which, arising chiefly in New England, drew attention to the often irreparable disasters caused by the abuse of alcoholic beverages. The movement was predominantly religious in inspiration and leadership: in this first phase, it sought to resolve the problem of alcoholism through personal regeneration. But the scant practical results achieved led it in another direction: to consolidate its organization within the individual states and then, over the brief period of 1826–44, to create three national federations, using the resulting political influence to obtain legal limitations and controls on production and sale. The weight and activity of the temperance movement in this new phase gave rise to a first wave of prohibition laws, adopted in various states around the middle of the century; but within a few years most of them were repealed, both because they were not supported by a united public opinion, and because the leaders of the movement were then engaged in the struggle against slavery; finally, because producers and retailers had succeeded in forming an organized opposition.
A prohibitionist party (1869), which as such had no influence, and a women’s temperance union (1874), after the Civil War, encouraged, in the penultimate decade of the century, a second wave of prohibition laws in approximately half of the states of the Confederation. Yet p. was incorporated into the respective constitutions in only five of them, and in only three of these was it maintained after 1903.
The movement changed its tactics and, seeing taverns as the primary cause of alcoholism, set out to secure their suppression. In 1893 the Anti-Saloon League arose, securing the widespread adoption of local prohibition laws and the closure of taverns throughout much of the national territory. The initiative, however, proved ineffective, since a prohibitionist community could not exclude beverages prohibited by law if other nearby centers tolerated them. Consequently, resort was again had to state p., which was applied on a large scale, particularly in the southern and western states. Moreover, since state p. too proved insufficient—interstate commerce fell under the jurisdiction of the federal government, and a prohibitionist state could therefore exercise no control over shipments sent directly from a non-prohibitionist state to the consumer—the movement worked to obtain federal intervention and to have a prohibitionist provision incorporated into the country’s Constitution. Thus, after a series of increasingly restrictive measures, on 5 January 1920 the XVIII amendment
to the Constitution was reached, by which total p. became law throughout the Confederation.
The struggle over p. deeply divided the country, both before and after the approval of the XVIII amendment: the rural element showed itself inclined to adopt p. voluntarily, while the urban element opposed it, even when it was imposed by law; employers were strong supporters of it, seeing in it a factor of productivity, whereas the working classes opposed II. From the outset, enforcing respect for the law proved extremely difficult, especially in the cities. Strong hostility to the measure fostered the activities of the bootleggers (smugglers), pioneers of “gangsterism,” and created clandestine bars and taverns (speakeasies). Direct distillation or fermentation was employed, and clandestine industries of a substantial scale met the constant demand for alcoholic beverages. Even the authorities, faced with an excessively broad task, proved susceptible to corruption and very often ended by allying themselves with the offenders. P. did not achieve the hoped-for effects: it reduced the consumption of alcoholic beverages among the less affluent, but did not appear to alter appreciably their consumption among other groups. For a decade, opposition to the XVIII amendment produced no results, since the country’s economic prosperity during that period benefited the prohibitionist forces, which attributed part of the credit to their initiative, citing as evidence the increase in savings, the large sums redirected toward other kinds of purchases, the improvement in public health, the decrease in accidents, and so forth. But the onset of the economic crisis marked a decisive shift in public opinion in favor of the anti-prohibitionist movement. It was argued, among other things, that the alcoholic-beverage industry would constitute a rich source of revenue for the state. The presidential campaign of 1932 settled the question with the defeat of p., which was repealed on 5 December 1933. The American experiment demonstrated that the problem of intemperance, even on a collective or national scale, remains a moral and psychological problem and must therefore be resolved through methods of persuasion and personal therapy rather than through absolute prohibitions imposed by law.