THE ALTERNATIVE

Abstract

Information agencies set up for business-friendly opinion moulding in Sweden worked actively with similar organizations in the Nordic countries to formulate a pro-business ideological programme after the Second World War. The intent of this so called ‘Alternative’ was to counteract social democratic ideas of a more state-planned economy. This article contributes to earlier research on how business interest associations in corporatist countries responded to the development of the welfare state in the Keynesian era. Over time, the programme became less about taking an ideological stance in defence of free enterprise and more about dealing with the economic consequences of record growth. Business involvement in cartelization proved difficult to combine with arguments for free competition, free markets, and non-regulated prices. Collaboration as well as new institutions for both formal and informal discussions between labour and capital during the 1950s and 1960s, at least in Sweden, seems to have reduced the sense of urgency for an ideological programme for business. In the end, no Nordic business programme was ever realized.

Keywords:

• business political activity
• public opinion
• Sweden
• business interest associations
• business ideology
• cartels

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 Sveriges socialdemokratiska arbetareparti, Arbetarrörelsens efterkrigsprogram, 30. All translations to Swedish are my own.

2 For Denmark, see Olsen, ‘Second-Hand Dealer’, 146. For Norway, see Sejersted, Age of Social Democracy, 312–13. For Finland, see Wuokko, Business in the Battle of Ideas. For a detailed debate on the extent of post-war economic planning in Norway, see the debate between Arild Saether/Ib Eriksen and Olav Bjerkholt in Econ Journal Watch 11(1,3).

3 This term comes from Olsen, ‘Second-Hand Dealer’, 139.

4 The Confederation was founded in 2001 when the Employers’ Association and Industry Association merged. This paper relies largely on archive material belonging to Näringslivets Fond. By looking at the archive registers belonging to SAF and Industriförbundet, it does not seem to have any more material related to the Alternative. It could be, however, that more information can be found in other Nordic archives and in the archives of individual business leaders. A future research task could be to look at Tore Browaldh’s archive (deposited by Svenska Handelsbanken at CfN) and Curt-Steffan Giesecke’s archive (F 51c in the SAF-archive at CfN).

5 Larsson, Näringslivets historia, 435; Berg and Traxler, Handbook of Business Interest Associations, 300.

6 Swenson, Capitalists against Markets.

7 Swenson, Capitalists against Markets, 296.

8 Swenson, Capitalists against Markets, preface, viii.

9 Nordlund, Att leda storföretag, 300; Linderborg, Socialdemokraterna skriver historia, 245.

10 Stenlås, ‘Rise of Political Activism’, 278; Olsen, ‘Second-Hand Dealer’, 156.

11 Stenlås, Den inre kretsen, 79–80, 87–8.

12 Styrelseprotokoll 1962-11-16, bil 7, A2:5, Näringslivets Fond, CfN.

13 Lewin, Planhushållningsdebatten, 271–2.

14 Mirowski and Plehwe, Road from Mont Pèlerin, 10.

15 Carlson, ‘Heckscher’s Ideological Migration’, 94. Quote from Mont Pelerin Society webpage: https://www.montpelerin.org (accessed 6 September 2017). An interesting aspect here is that Näringslivets Fond changed its by-laws and name to Ratio in 2004 in order to become an independent institute conducting research on the conditions of enterprise. In 2017, Ratio hosted the Mont Pelerin Society in Stockholm. See Ratio website: http://ratio.se/mps-2017 (accessed 6 September 2017).

16 Nordlund, Att leda storföretag, 328–9.

17 Styrelseprotokoll 1947-01-10, Garantistiftelsen 1946, Näringslivets Fond, CfN; Ullenhag I takt med tiden, 49.

18 Stenlås, Den inre kretsen, 349–50; Lewin, Planhushållningsdebatten, 340–1.

19 Lewin, Planhushållningsdebatten, 360–1.

20 Sejersted, Age of Social Democracy, 309–11.

21 Nycander, Makten över arbetsmarknaden, 126; Larsson, Näringslivets historia, 437–42; Stråth, Mellan två fonder, 54–5.

22 Lundh, Spelets regler, 195–207; Nycander, Makten över arbetsmarknaden, 87, 139; Ruin, I välfärdsstatens tjänst, 264–77; Östberg, I takt med tiden, 118–19.

23 Sejersted, Age of Social Democracy, 222.

24 Ericsson, Kapitalets politik, 96–7.

25 Söderpalm, Direktörsklubben, 16, 31, 36–7.

26 Stenlås, ‘Rise of Political Activism’, 274.

27 Protokoll 1945-03-13, Protokoll Huvudmännen 1945–1950, Näringslivets Fond (Timbros deposition), CfN. See also bilaga 2.

28 Mirowski and Plehwe, Road from Mont Pèlerin, 19.

29 P.M Ang. utformningen av ett näringspolitiskt program, B1:2, Näringslivets Fond, CfN; Eskilsson a, Från folkhem, 36.

30 Ullenhag, I takt med tiden, 22; Carlsson and Lundahl, Ett forskningsinstitut, 195.

31 Ullenhag, I takt med tiden, 25–8.

32 Browaldh, Gesällvandring, 75–6.

33 Ullenhag, I takt med tiden, 17.

34 Noteringar för diskussion kring SNS’ näringspolitiska program, Kap 1, F2:1, Näringslivets Fond, CfN.

35 P.M Ang. utformningen av ett näringspolitiskt program, B1:2, Näringslivets Fond, CfN.

36 P.m angående arbetet på ett liberalt alternativ […], F2:2, Näringslivets Fond, CfN.

37 Olsen, ‘Second-Hand Dealer’, 149, 151; Norsk Biografisk Leksikon, ‘Trygve de Lange’ (by Bonde, Arne), https://nbl.snl.no/Trygve_De_Lange (accessed 5 February 2018).

38 Koncentrerat referat av förhandlingarna vid det Nordiska Kontaktmannamötet i Helsingfors den 11 och 12 februari 1952, F2:2 Alternativet 1950-1953 + u-å, Näringslivets Fond, CfN.

39 Referat fra kontaktmannsmotet på Elingaard 13, 14 och 15, juni 1952, Svenska programarbetet, F1:1 Utredningar, Näringslivets Fond, CfN; Olsen, ‘Second-Hand Dealer’, 156. Note that Olsen misspells Egeland as ‘Englund’.

40 P.m angående arbetet på ett liberalt alternativ […], F2:2, Näringslivets Fond, CfN.

41 De Geer, Arbetsgivarna, 110.

42 Wallander, Livet som det blev, 238.

43 Sandberg, ‘Cartel Registration in Sweden’, 214.

44 Anteckningar vid konferensen i Yxtaholm den 22 och 23 augusti 1952, F2:2, Näringslivets Fond, CfN. For more information on Browaldh, see Nationalencyklopedin, Tore Browaldh, https://www.ne.se/uppslagsverk/encyklopedi/lång/tore-browaldh (accessed 14 June 2018).

45 Representanter från de nordiska länderna för samarbete i fråga om ett ‘näringslivets program’, Svenska programarbetet, F1:1, Näringslivets Fond, CfN.

46 Anteckningar. Från sammanträde i Stockholm den 14 december 1953 …, ‘Alternativet’ Promemorior enligt svenska dispositionen, F2:3, Näringslivets Fond, CfN; P.M. angående konferensen på Elingaard i oktober 1956, F2:4, Näringslivets Fond, CfN.

47 Giesecke was deputy director of SAF from 1954 and director from 1966. Project Runeberg, Vem är det: svensk Biografisk handbok 1969, http://runeberg.org/vemardet/1969/0327.html (accessed 25 September 2017).

48 Svenska Gruppen Disposition till ett näringslivets program, Alternativet: Promemorior enligt svenska dispositionen, F2:3 Alternativet 1952-1954, Näringslivets Fond, CfN.

49 Ullenhag, I takt med tiden, 60; F1:1 Utredningar, Näringslivets Fond, CfN. Wallander was managing director of IUI (today named IFN) in 1953–1961. see Institutet för Näringslivsforskning, Historik, https://www.ifn.se/om_ifn/historik/tidslinje (accessed 14 June 2018).

50 Wallander, Livet som det blev, 239.

51 GRUNDSYNEN, Manifest Tore Sellberg, B1:1, Näringslivets Fond, CfN.

52 P.M. angående konferensen på Elingaard i oktober 1956, F2:4, Näringslivets Fond, CfN. See also Ericsson, Kapitalets politik, 101–4, for a description of the 1956 campaign.

53 Brev från Tore Sellberg och Christian Gandil januari 1957, Alternativet Manifestfrågan, F2:5, Näringslivets Fond, CfN.

54 Curt-Steffan Giesecke brev till Tore Sellberg 23 januari 1957, Alternativet Manifestfrågan, F2:5, Näringslivets Fond, CfN.

55 Trygve de Lange brev till Tore Sellberg 25 januari 1957 and Anker Lau brev till Christian Gandil 30 januari 1957, Alternativet Manifestfrågan, F2:5, Näringslivets Fond, CfN.

56 Alternativet - handlingsprogram, F2:1, Näringslivets Fond, CfN.

57 Herz, Ideologi för näringslivet; Ullenhag, I takt med tiden, 73–7; Lewin,

Planhushållningsdebatten, 377–83.

58 Lewin, Planhushållningsdebatten, 383.

59 Herz, Ideologi för näringslivet, 44, 60, 67. On Nordenson’s career, see Nationalencyklopedin, Harald Nordenson, http://www.ne.se/uppslagsverk/encyklopedi/lång/harald-nordenson (accessed 22 September 2017). For more on Nordenson’s view on ideology, see Ericsson, Kapitalets politik, 62–3.

60 Ericsson, Kapitalets politik, 101–3.

61 Invitation, F3:5, Näringslivets Fond, CfN. Aims of Industry was founded in 1942 ‘to campaign for free enterprise’. Libertas was founded in 1947 ‘with the objective of working for free enterprise’. INFRA worked for ‘the promotion of free enterprise activities’ (see letterhead in box F3:5). Aktionsgemeinschaft Soziale Marktwirtschaft was founded in 1953 to promote a social market economy (see the organization’s web page: http://www.asm-ev.de/UeU_Historie.html; accessed 12 December 2017).

62 Manifesto, F3:5, Näringslivets Fond, CfN.

63 Konferens på Elingaard 1965, F3:5, Näringslivets Fond, CfN.

64 Til samtlige medlemmer og interesserte, F3:5, Näringslivets Fond, CfN.

65 Styrelseprotokoll 1963-02-20, bil 1, A2:5, Näringslivets Fond, CfN.

66 Furre, Norsk historie 800-2000, 239.

67 Styrelseprotokoll 1952-10-28, A2:3, Näringslivets Fond, CfN.

68 Ullenhag, I takt med tiden, 96–8.

69 Olsen, ‘Second-Hand Dealer’, 161.

70 Wuokko, ‘Battle of Ideas’, 1.

71 Wallander, Livet som det blev, 240, 331.

72 Eskilsson, Från folkhem, 33.

Additional information

Funding

This project was supported by a scholarship provided by the Stockholm School of Economics.

Notes on contributors

Rikard Westerberg

Rikard Westerberg is a Ph.D. student at the Institute for Economic and Business History Research (EHFF) at the Stockholm School of Economics. His Ph.D. project concerns Swedish business’ influence on politics and public opinion, 1945–1985. Address: Institute for Economic and Business History Research (EHFF), Stockholm School of Economics, P.O Box 6501, SE-11383 Stockholm, Sweden. [email: [email protected]]