Staten som kapitalist : Marknadsanpassningen av de affärsdrivande verken 1976-1994

Sammanfattning: During the 1980's a transformation of the Swedish public sector took place. A term that has frequently been used to describe this chain of events is market orientation. This dissertation deals with the market orientation of a particular group of public authorities, the public enterprises. This book contains a study of the Swedish Parliament's policy during the period 1976-1994 as regards four public enterprises; The Post Office Administration, The Swedish Telecommunications Administration, The Swedish State Railways and The State Power Board.The thesis shows that over time the market orientation of the public enterprises has gradually become more apparent and has increasingly covered more aspects of their activities. During the 1980's market orientation was carried out within the framework of the public enterprises as such. Then, at the start of the 1990's, the public enterprise form of three of the studied enterprises was abolished in favour of the company form.The study also shows that the vast majority of the political parties have moved towards a more positive position vis-á-vis market orientation. It is the non-socialist parties that started the policy of market orientation but, interestingly enough, it is during the subsequent Social Democratic government that the policy of market orientation becomes particularly pronounced.The concluding section of the book is devoted to a discussion on how the decisions made to increase the market orientation of public enterprises can be explained. This discussion concludes with a section devoted to the actions of the Social Democratic Party. In conclusion, the Social Democrats may have applied what in this thesis is called a functional-capitalistic strategy.