blowing smoke: Status politics and the Shasta County smoking ban

Abstract

This study examines the politics underlying the implementation of a smoking ban in public facilities, including restaurants and bars. The analysis is grounded in interviews with the moral entrepreneurs who spearheaded the antismoking crusade and the status quo defenders who opposed it, a content analysis of letters to the editor, and data on the pro‐ and antiban letter writers’ cumulative property values. The findings reveal that moral entrepreneurs and proban letter writers focused on health risks thought to be associated with secondhand smoke; their opponents focused on the individual right to smoke. As expected, status also differentiates the pro‐ and antiban groups, consistent with theorizing about the role of status politics in the creation of deviant types.