Drink and Democracy
Alcohol and the Political Imaginary in Colonial Australia
Book •
Matthew Allen traces the development of democratic ideas in New South Wales through the history of public drinking and temperance.
As the colony transformed from a convict autocracy to a liberal democracy, public drinking practices shaped the character of the emerging political order.
The ritual of toasting was a symbolic display of restraint – drunkenness without loss of self-control – that embodied the claim to citizenship of white male settlers.
Yet the performative sobriety of the temperance movement was also democratic, a display of respectability that politicized its supporters around a rival vision of responsible citizenship.
Drink was a way to police the limits of the political realm.
As the colony transformed from a convict autocracy to a liberal democracy, public drinking practices shaped the character of the emerging political order.
The ritual of toasting was a symbolic display of restraint – drunkenness without loss of self-control – that embodied the claim to citizenship of white male settlers.
Yet the performative sobriety of the temperance movement was also democratic, a display of respectability that politicized its supporters around a rival vision of responsible citizenship.
Drink was a way to police the limits of the political realm.
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Matthew Allen
Matthew Allen, "Drink and Democracy: Alcohol and the Political Imaginary in Colonial Australia" (McGill-Queen's UP, 2025)
