Socialists at the gate: Swedish Business and the Defense of Free Enterprise, 1940-1985

Sammanfattning: This PhD-project studies the efforts of organized business in Sweden to influence public opinion in favor of free enterprise ideas between 1940 and 1985. The data mainly consists of a unique and previously unresearched archival material belonging to organizations that were set up to defend a privately owned business sector primarily during confrontations with the labor movement over a more planned economy in the 1940s and wage earner funds in the 1970s. By deepening our knowledge of the political advocacy work of Swedish business, which to a large extent was inspired by free-enterprise organizations abroad, and relating this to developments in other Western countries the project will contribute to a growing international scholarly interest in the societal influence of organized business.