Abstract

"Valuable Relations – Business Backed Think Tanks in Sweden and Their International Connections, 1945-1985. "

Rikard Westerberg, Institute for Economic and Business History Research, Stockholm School of Economics (Rikard.westerberg@hhs.se)

What did the collaboration look like between business sponsored think tanks in Sweden and sister organizations abroad during the cold war decades? Using previously unavailable archival records this paper explores the connections between the Swedish Employers’ Confederation, including its subsidiary the Swedish Free Enterprise Fund, and pro-market organizations outside of Sweden such as the international Mont Pelerin Society and the Institute for Economic Affairs in the U.K. It will especially analyze the relationship between prominent free market economists, such as F.A Hayek and Milton Friedman, and public-relations experts within the Swedish business community. The paper will help us understand how ideas of deregulation, competition and individual choice got a foothold in a country so characterized by social democracy.
From the 1940s and onwards Swedish businessmen looked to the Anglo-Saxon and Nordic countries for inspiration and knowledge exchange in how to build organizations for political advocacy. The perils of socialism were to be fought by convincing the general public of the benefits of free enterprise. In a long struggle that began after World War II pro-business and market oriented ideas eventually gained ground by the late 1970s as the institutional foundations of Sweden’s corporative and coordinated market economy (Hall and Soskice 2001; Martin and Swank 2012) eroded. While the rise of business backed information agencies has been told for other countries (for the U.K. see e.g. Cockett 1995; Jackson 2014, for the U.S. e.g. Phillips-Fein 2009; Waterhouse 2013; for Denmark see Olsen 2014 and for Finland see; Wuokko 2017) this story remains untold for Sweden until now.