The Relationship between Changing Societal Economies and Alcohol Use: A Case for Tolerance Quotient Expansion

This paper presents a general sensitizing model for the analysis of societal differences in alcohol use. This model incorporates three general processes; (1) the relative position of a society within a world-economic system, (2) the effects of such changes upon both societal members and social structure and (c) the potential ameliorative and disintegrative results of alcohol use in the face of such change. These changes and resultant alcohol use are mediated by two general mechanisms. The first is the infusing of a society's industrial products with symbolic meaning and the second is a change in the tolerance quotient level for alcohol use to adjust to individual and system stress. This model is discussed in terms of its potential utility for providing a more general approach for the study of epidemiology of alcohol use. “In broad terms the problem as the sociologist sees it centers on the use and nonuse of alcohol in different societies. Along with his anthropological stablemates he is directly concerned with the use and nonuse of alcohol as they are affected by social organization and culture—culture taken here to mean the patterned regularities of behavior which are socially derived and transmitted cumulatively by societies and groups.” (Lemert 1956:306)