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The turmoil of conflict and international crisis affects government as well as business interests. This article investigates how government–business relationships developed to tackle the potential problems of so-called peacetime crises that could adversely affect the country's steel and metal industries if the imports of alloy metals were disrupted in Sweden during the 1970s and 1980s. Based on extensive archival material and using an Advocacy Coalition Framework, we examine how this problem was negotiated between key stakeholders in Sweden during the period 1973–1987. We conclude that while the corporatist arrangements for negotiation were designed to build consensus, the state and business interests ultimately came into disagreement with each other. These results reflect recent research which emphasise that the relations between the state defence actors and business interests have been characterised by antagonism and contentions to a much larger degree than has been assumed in previous research.

This chapter examines the use of cost-benefit analyses during three decision-making processes concerning icebreaker investments in Sweden between 1970 and 1975. It is demonstrated that while the 1963 transport act recommended that all government-funded transport and infrastructure investments should be preceded by cost-benefit analyses, it was difficult to implement this ambition. During the examined investment processes, actors such as economists, agencies, and interest groups presented available and potential calculations of benefits and costs for society from the proposed icebreakers. However, those proposals were only partly taken into consideration and were not decisive for the investment decisions which instead had a strong anchorage in an institutional context dominated by prominent goals within macroeconomic policy, regional cohesion policy, and industrial policy. The examined decisions reflected a general view held by the government and industrial leaders that investments in new icebreakers were necessary to support ongoing and planned investments in the heavy manufacturing industries located in northern Sweden. Such views regarding the role of the icebreaker service as a catalyst for industrial investments had also been established in a corporatist network between the State Maritime Administration and a group of firms in the heavy manufacturing industrial sector concerned by icebreaking.

This article by Pär Malmberg, Jan Ottosson, Martin Eriksson, and Olle Jansson discusses Sweden’s work with industry as part of its total defence concept and whole-of-society approach to national preparedness. The article covers the past and the formative years in the early 1960s, up to the gradual discontinuation of total defence planning at the turn of the 21st century. It also presents the status and possible future developments in the context of changing industrial and geopolitical realities. The focus is on the forms of collaboration and coordination between the State and companies, both private and publicly owned.

Redan på medeltiden var kungen mån om att hålla samman riket. Bönderna i varje län fick bygga landsvägar. På 1600-talet tillkom gästgivargårdar, där det fanns kost och logi, men även möjlighet att hyra hästskjuts. På 1850-talet byggde staten telegraflinjer och i södra Sverige även järnvägar. Först 1891 nådde emellertid norra stambanan Vännäs och fem år senare även Umeå. Redan 1914 började man dessutom tala om flygplatser. Men det skulle dröja ytterligare ett halvsekel innan dessa började anläggas i Västerbotten.

This article deals with the Nordic Council as a cooperation organ for building transnational roads outside of the E-road network during the period 1956–1966. The Nordic experience of planning and interconnecting transnational roads is related to the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (ECE) and the development of the E-road network. It is noted that whereas the E-road network built on an ambition within the ECE to create mutual understanding and fraternity between the European nations, the Nordic Council viewed roads as instruments to deal with shared economic and social problems. Another difference is that while the member states of the ECE interacted with societal groups and expert organisations during the interconnection of the E-road network, such actors did not participate directly with the Nordic Council. The inter-Nordic stream of technical expertise was primarily channelled through the national road administrations which cooperated to interconnect the trans-Nordic network.

Uppsatsen behandlar Fonden för vissa stödåtgärder inom malmkommunerna som ett exempel på hur mellankrigstidens regionalpolitik tog sig uttryck i Sverige. Den visar att en avgörande skillnad mellan 1930-talets regionalpolitik och de större, mer permanenta program som utvecklades från och med 1960-talet var att 1930-talets regionalpolitik byggde på analysen att rumsliga problem var relaterade till övergående ekonomiska cykler, snarare än strukturella ekonomiska problem. Denna tanke medförde att regionalpolitiken utformades med inspiration från den kontracykliska arbetsmarknadspolitiken och i dialog med de parter på arbetsmarknaden som berördes av åtgärderna. 

When the Swedish state nationalised the mining company LKAB in 1957, it became the sole owner of one of the richest iron ore fields in the world. The government was aware that iron ore was a non-renewable resource and wished to conserve this wealth for future generations by allocating part of the revenue from LKAB to a mineral trust fund. This article investigates the decision-making process that created the LKAB trust fund. We demonstrate that, initially, the Social Democratic government had a dual goal with the LKAB trust fund. On the one hand, it wanted to use the revenue from LKAB to fund applied scientific and technical research to complement research and development within the private sector, thereby aiming to accelerate economic growth. On the other hand, the government were very concerned about the economic development of northern Sweden, where LKAB´s mines were located. It wished to reduce the dependence on natural resource exports and to diversify the regional economy by providing capital for investments in the manufacturing industry. 

However, the government eventually came to the decision that these disparate goals could only be realized by creating two separate funds. One fund, the so-called Ore fund (Malmfonden) was created to fund applied technical and scientific research. The other fund, the so-called Norrland fund (Norrlandsfonden), was created to provide investment capital for manufacturing industries in northern Sweden. The Social Democratic government had strong political ambitions to develop both these areas. To retain its commitment to national growth, it wanted the state to keep technological development in the economy at a sufficient level. The government also had a growing commitment towards spatial cohesion and began to implement active regional policies in northern Sweden. By stimulating investment in manufacturing industries, it hoped to break what was perceived as long-standing structural problems of regional unemployment and unbalanced outmigration.

I samband med att LKAB förstatligades 1957 ville staten skapa alternativa inkomstkällor utanför gruvbrytningen genom att använda LKAB:s vinster för framtidsinriktade syften. Resultatet blev två fonder: Malmfonden, som var en nationell fond för teknisk-naturvetenskaplig forskning, och Norrlandsfonden, som var en fond för kreditgivning till regionalpolitiskt motiverade industriinvesteringar. Uppsatsen beskriver tillkomsten av dessa fonder och hur malmintäkterna fördelades mellan dem.

When the Swedish state nationalised the mining company LKAB in 1957, it became the sole owner of one of the richest iron ore fields in the world. The government was aware that iron ore was a non-renewable resource and wished to conserve this wealth for future generations by allocating part of the revenue from LKAB to a mineral trust fund. This article investigates the decision-making process that created the LKAB trust fund. We demonstrate that, initially, the Social Democratic government had a dual goal with the LKAB trust fund. On the one hand, it wanted to use the revenue from LKAB to fund applied scientific and technical research to complement research and development within the private sector, thereby aiming to accelerate economic growth. On the other hand, the government were very concerned about the economic development of northern Sweden, where LKAB's mines were located. It wished to reduce the dependence on natural resource exports and to diversify the regional economy by providing capital for investments in the manufacturing industry.

However, the government eventually came to the decision that these disparate goals could only be realized by creating two separate funds. One fund, the so-called Ore fund (Malmfonden) was created to fund applied technical and scientific research. The other fund, the so-called Norrland fund (Norrlandsfonden), was created to provide investment capital for manufacturing industries in northern Sweden. The Social Democratic government had strong political ambitions to develop both these areas. To retain its commitment to national growth, it wanted the state to keep technological development in the economy at a sufficient level. The government also had a growing commitment towards spatial cohesion and began to implement active regional policies in northern Sweden. By stimulating investment in manufacturing industries, it hoped to break what was perceived as long-standing structural problems of regional unemployment and unbalanced outmigration.