Adam Smith and Bruce Yandle: Soda-Tax Support From Plenty of Baptists, But No Bootleggers

Earlier this month, residents of Berkeley,
California, voted in a one-cent per ounce tax on
sugary drinks, the first ever in the United States. As many
as 30 previous attempts by U.S. cities and states to tax
away sugar in soda have failed. What seems like the perfect
opportunity for a “bootleggers and Baptists” style
coalition to perform their political magic just hasn’t played
out, note economists Adam Smith and Bruce Yandle.

Smith and Yandle, co-authors of the recent
book Bootleggers and Baptists: Explaining America’s
Regulatory Saga, can find plenty of “Baptists” in the soda-tax
situation: groups such as the American Heart Association, the
American Academy of Pediatrics, and the NAACP that see sweet drinks
as a major detriment to American health and well-being. But where
are the bootleggers?

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