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Making tobacco consumption a political issue in the United States and Denmark: The dynamics of issue expansion in comparative perspective

2007; Routledge; Volume: 9; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/13876980601145581

1572-5448

Erik Albæk, Christoffer Green‐Pedersen, Lars Nielsen,

Political Influence and Corporate Strategies

Abstract This article represents one of the first attempts to study agenda setting and policy processes in a cross-national perspective, and we do so by examining the issue of tobacco consumption in Denmark and the United States over the last half-century. There are similarities in the ways that the political systems have responded. In both countries political attention has been rising, and so has the number of measures to control tobacco consumption. There are also striking differences, however. In the US federal system with its separation of powers there are multiple venues for the tobacco issue to reach the political agenda. The issue broke through into the congressional political agenda after a major settlement between the tobacco industry and individual states, which joined forces with private attorneys. This settlement expanded the political conflict around tobacco into one of taxpayers against the industry. The Danish Parliament has been more reluctant to take up issues pertaining to tobacco consumption. In the Danish single-venue parliamentary system, an issue must be defined along existing party conflict lines in order to expand and reach the political agenda. Regulation of environmental tobacco smoke (ETS), however, has been defined as an “ethical” issue; in contrast to normal policies, MPs can, on a personal basis, cast a free vote, meaning that ETS is on no party's political agenda. Policy initiatives on ETS have consequently been sparse. Thus, in both the United States and Denmark, we find that the structure of the political system has played a crucial role in the expansion of tobacco-control issues from the public to the political agenda and also in shaping policy initiatives themselves.