UNIVERSITY OF THESSALY
2nd International Conference on Economic and Social History
"Markets" and Politics
Private interests and public authority (18th-20th centuries)
Volos, 10-12 February 2012
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Abstracts
- Rolf Hugoson Βeyond the consensus culture: Recognizing Urban Interests in Sweden, 1719-1921
Sweden was a state long before it was a democracy and long before liberalism. Yet, since 1521 it was a state whose governments ruled according to constitutions. Parliaments (riksdagar or diets) where regularly held, allowing the four estates (nobility, priests, burgers, farmers) to participate, when taxes and laws were established. Furthermore, the national government controlled cities by giving the burgers privileges to trade and by demanding that their administration be controlled by state officials with a legal education. Yet, during the epoch studied here (1719-1921), cities were not merely legal entities. They also appeared as a particular form of territorial business corporation with joint ownership. In other words, our contemporary idea of “public-private-partnerships” has a long history. Markets were never free, but within the limits of urban laws, there was much room for maneuver to accommodate and explore particular or common urban interests concerning property, infrastructure, trade and industry. Early evolution still marks present function. Thus, the history of urban interests in Sweden reveals that the idea of a Scandinavian “consensus culture” allowed for more diversity than it is often assumed, when the famous 1930s compromises between Capital and Labour are held up as a historical monument.
