Magnus Linnarsson
My research deals with topics in the intersection between the state and civil society. I have a particular interest in organizations and institutions and how political decisions at different levels have had repercussions on both the state organization, as for people in general. A major focus have been how different organizational forms was used to manage various services and utilities, as well as conflicts and debates about their organization.
At the moment, I work on a project, Shifting Regimes: Representation, administrative reform and instiutional change in early modern Sweden, c. 1537–1810, together with Mats Hallenberg and Joakim Scherp. How was the modern state formed and by whom? We propose to answer this question by studying the relation between the political and the administrative spheres in Sweden from a long-term perspective, c. 1537-1810. The wider purpose is to analyse the agency behind institutional change by comparing the actions of political leaders with those of major bureaucratic bodies.
Previously, I conducted a research project along with Mats Hallenberg, in which we analyze political conflicts concerning the organization of the public service from pre-modern to modern times: Self-interest versus the common good. The results are presented in my book, Problemet med vinster (2017), and in the article, "The quest for publicness" (2017). We investigate how various arguments have been articulated in policy discussions, and how these in turn influenced political decisions. The project studies both privatization, and state and local government takeovers of areas previously organized outside the public sector.
In my earlier research I have studied how the Swedish early modern state organized various parts of its business. I have written a dissertation about the Swedish postal service and its organization in Sweden during the 1600s and early 1700s, Postgång på växlande villkor (2010). Based on the postal organization, I have shown that the Swedish state during the early modern period used several alternative organizational forms for its business – both strict government bureaucracy and what we today would call private contractors.
Phone: +46 (0)8 16 20 21
Address: Department of History
Stockholm University
SE-106 91 Stockholm
SWEDEN
At the moment, I work on a project, Shifting Regimes: Representation, administrative reform and instiutional change in early modern Sweden, c. 1537–1810, together with Mats Hallenberg and Joakim Scherp. How was the modern state formed and by whom? We propose to answer this question by studying the relation between the political and the administrative spheres in Sweden from a long-term perspective, c. 1537-1810. The wider purpose is to analyse the agency behind institutional change by comparing the actions of political leaders with those of major bureaucratic bodies.
Previously, I conducted a research project along with Mats Hallenberg, in which we analyze political conflicts concerning the organization of the public service from pre-modern to modern times: Self-interest versus the common good. The results are presented in my book, Problemet med vinster (2017), and in the article, "The quest for publicness" (2017). We investigate how various arguments have been articulated in policy discussions, and how these in turn influenced political decisions. The project studies both privatization, and state and local government takeovers of areas previously organized outside the public sector.
In my earlier research I have studied how the Swedish early modern state organized various parts of its business. I have written a dissertation about the Swedish postal service and its organization in Sweden during the 1600s and early 1700s, Postgång på växlande villkor (2010). Based on the postal organization, I have shown that the Swedish state during the early modern period used several alternative organizational forms for its business – both strict government bureaucracy and what we today would call private contractors.
Phone: +46 (0)8 16 20 21
Address: Department of History
Stockholm University
SE-106 91 Stockholm
SWEDEN
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When the Swedish government tried to initiate public street lightning in Stockholm in 1749, there was a broad consensus among government and city officials that this should be done by the creation of a municipal organization financed by tax income. The burghers of Stockholm, however, opposed the proposal and argued that they were themselves better suited to care for the streetlights. The common good should be provided by individual action of responsible, male householders. Eventually the burghers got the upper hand and public street lightning continued to be organized by private initiative until the mid-nineteenth century.
When in the 1720s the Swedish diet discussed the lease of custom duties by a merchant consortium (Sw. generaltullarrendesocieteten), the problem of corruption emerged as the bone of contention. Proponents claimed that this form of private enterprise was an effective means to suppress widespread corruption among state officials. Their opponents argued to the contrary that private leaseholders would skim off the profits for themselves, thereby depriving the state of its income.
In the mid-eighteenth century the city authorities in Stockholm debated whether the emptying of latrines should remain an individual concern or if it should be recognized as a public matter. The city officials at first decided that this task was indeed a matter of public concern that should be handled by private entrepreneurs. Within a few years they had changed their minds, however, proposing instead that a new communal organization should be created for the removal of city waste. By now, the ruling elite of Stockholm had begun to identify the common good with municipal direction.
The development of railway infrastructure was a hotly debated subject in the Swedish diet of the 1850s. Some representatives argued that private entrepreneurs would provide more cost-effective solutions than publicly managed railways, while others claimed that the state must administer a national system of railways. In the debate, private self-interest was juxtaposed with equal access to the common good. The proponents of state intervention claimed that national concerns must have priority over financial gain, and this argument would eventually influence the final decision.
By the middle of the nineteenth century there was a growing consensus among the ruling elites in Sweden that the common good could best be provided for by state or municipal initiative. In the debates, arguments about organizational efficiency and equal access to public services eventually won out over notions of individual responsibility and private enterprise as a better alternative to corrupt government. In the late twentieth century the debate had shifted radically, however. The reasons for this shift will be the subject of our future research.
The participants were invited to write an article based on the session and the results are published in this Supplement of Scandia. Hopefully, the various approaches and perspectives presented here reveal the multifaceted nature of the concept of premodernity. Further to the very simple chronological demarcation of the “premodern”, as given by the Swedish Foundation for Humanities and Social Sciences, this collection of articles shows its wide and varied definitions. Limiting premodern to the chronological interpretation of the concept, risks lumping all pre-1800s history together into “something that happened in the old days”. As several of the contributions to this Supplement shows, premodernity can instead be used as a relevant analytical concept, discussed and applied by researchers.
Cet article porte sur la manière dont le Conseil d’État de Suède décrit et perçoit les mercenaires entre 1621 et 1636. L’enquête montre que le Conseil considère les mercenaires comme infidèles, peu fiables et couteux. Au cours des discussions, il ressort que les troupes de conscrits suédois sont considérées comme étant de meilleure qualité que les mercenaires qui sont loués. La perception des mercenaires par le Conseil confirme un paradoxe de l’histoire militaire. Pendant la période étudiée, les mercenaires constituent une part très importante des forces combattantes, notamment dans l’armée suédoise. Cette étude par conséquent montre comment l’idéal du recrutement des soldats entre en contradiction avec la réalité politique. L’article permet aussi un réexamen de la thèse de la politiste britannique Sarah Percy selon laquelle l’opposition à l’utilisation des mercenaires était la norme. Selon elle une telle manière de penser a mis des restrictions à l’utilisation des mercenaires depuis le Moyen Âge. À la lumière de l’étude des archives suédoises, il ressort que cette norme peut être trouvée dans le discours, mais qu’elle n’a eu aucun impact réel sur le recrutement des troupes pendant la période qui est étudiée.
The article argues that national security was one explanation for the large amounts of state aid given to the SRA. The government considered rayon production vital to state security. This explanation complements previous research about Swedish state aid in the time period, which has mainly been interpreted from the perspective of labour policies. A second explanation is provided by the Swedish system of corporatism. Sweden has been described as one of the most corporative states in Europe, and the analysis of the aid offered to the SRA shows that the state and the company became more and more interlinked. In the case of the 1983 agreement, most of the text was produced by the two parts together. The article ends with a discussion of the case of the SRA as an example of the dissolution of the prevailing economic policy model in Sweden. This policy had been shaped by the so-called RhenMeidner model, and the state’s aid to the company shows how the model was abandoned, starting the movement towards a new economic policy.
Books
The issue of the public and private operation of welfare services is very much an issue today. There is a common misconception that the privatization of the public sector has been limited to the late twentieth century, but on the contrary, the issue of the private administration of public services is a political problem with a long history. One of the aims of this book is thus to chart the many and varied answers given by politicians down the ages to the question of how best to manage what are now thought of as public services, or public goods. Furthermore, the study sets out to demonstrate how concepts and ideas from the past still play a role in today’s debates about the organization and operation of public services.
I Konsten att skriva en fotnot diskuteras detaljfrågor kring formalia, såsom citat- och referatteknik samt hantering av illustrationer och fotnoter, men framför allt tar författarna ett helhetsgrepp på vetenskaplig formalia. Boken är tänkt att vara ett hjälpmedel att användas under själva skrivandet och ger exempel på en mängd frågeställningar som kan infinna sig för uppsatsskribenten. Hur ska egentligen referenser utformas i en vetenskaplig text? Ska en fotnot stå före eller efter punkten? Hur redovisas internetkällor i källförteckningen?
Boken vänder sig till nya studenter som behöver en bok i behändigt format att hålla hårt i under uppsatsskrivandet, men också till den mer erfarna forskaren som kan behöva en uppslagsbok när det uppstår frågor kring hur hänvisningar ska utformas.
Chapters in books
The Post’s historical role must be considered in the context of European society at large. Focus should move away from its organization and development as an institution in isolation. That is the perspective shared by contributors to this anthology.
Conference Presentations
In the paper we will demonstrate how the commercial restructuring of urban space challenged conservative notions of the common good as well as modern views of social reform and publicness. The modernization of public transport and telecommunications offered new possibilities for urban planning and extending the public sphere. The paper argues that political decisions played a vital role in shaping the management of public services. Discussions over who has the right to organise the common good has remained a leading trope in European history to this day, which makes it all the more important to see how political discourse on this subject have developed and changed over time.
When the Swedish government tried to initiate public street lightning in Stockholm in 1749, there was a broad consensus among government and city officials that this should be done by the creation of a municipal organization financed by tax income. The burghers of Stockholm, however, opposed the proposal and argued that they were themselves better suited to care for the streetlights. The common good should be provided by individual action of responsible, male householders. Eventually the burghers got the upper hand and public street lightning continued to be organized by private initiative until the mid-nineteenth century.
When in the 1720s the Swedish diet discussed the lease of custom duties by a merchant consortium (Sw. generaltullarrendesocieteten), the problem of corruption emerged as the bone of contention. Proponents claimed that this form of private enterprise was an effective means to suppress widespread corruption among state officials. Their opponents argued to the contrary that private leaseholders would skim off the profits for themselves, thereby depriving the state of its income.
In the mid-eighteenth century the city authorities in Stockholm debated whether the emptying of latrines should remain an individual concern or if it should be recognized as a public matter. The city officials at first decided that this task was indeed a matter of public concern that should be handled by private entrepreneurs. Within a few years they had changed their minds, however, proposing instead that a new communal organization should be created for the removal of city waste. By now, the ruling elite of Stockholm had begun to identify the common good with municipal direction.
The development of railway infrastructure was a hotly debated subject in the Swedish diet of the 1850s. Some representatives argued that private entrepreneurs would provide more cost-effective solutions than publicly managed railways, while others claimed that the state must administer a national system of railways. In the debate, private self-interest was juxtaposed with equal access to the common good. The proponents of state intervention claimed that national concerns must have priority over financial gain, and this argument would eventually influence the final decision.
By the middle of the nineteenth century there was a growing consensus among the ruling elites in Sweden that the common good could best be provided for by state or municipal initiative. In the debates, arguments about organizational efficiency and equal access to public services eventually won out over notions of individual responsibility and private enterprise as a better alternative to corrupt government. In the late twentieth century the debate had shifted radically, however. The reasons for this shift will be the subject of our future research.
The participants were invited to write an article based on the session and the results are published in this Supplement of Scandia. Hopefully, the various approaches and perspectives presented here reveal the multifaceted nature of the concept of premodernity. Further to the very simple chronological demarcation of the “premodern”, as given by the Swedish Foundation for Humanities and Social Sciences, this collection of articles shows its wide and varied definitions. Limiting premodern to the chronological interpretation of the concept, risks lumping all pre-1800s history together into “something that happened in the old days”. As several of the contributions to this Supplement shows, premodernity can instead be used as a relevant analytical concept, discussed and applied by researchers.
Cet article porte sur la manière dont le Conseil d’État de Suède décrit et perçoit les mercenaires entre 1621 et 1636. L’enquête montre que le Conseil considère les mercenaires comme infidèles, peu fiables et couteux. Au cours des discussions, il ressort que les troupes de conscrits suédois sont considérées comme étant de meilleure qualité que les mercenaires qui sont loués. La perception des mercenaires par le Conseil confirme un paradoxe de l’histoire militaire. Pendant la période étudiée, les mercenaires constituent une part très importante des forces combattantes, notamment dans l’armée suédoise. Cette étude par conséquent montre comment l’idéal du recrutement des soldats entre en contradiction avec la réalité politique. L’article permet aussi un réexamen de la thèse de la politiste britannique Sarah Percy selon laquelle l’opposition à l’utilisation des mercenaires était la norme. Selon elle une telle manière de penser a mis des restrictions à l’utilisation des mercenaires depuis le Moyen Âge. À la lumière de l’étude des archives suédoises, il ressort que cette norme peut être trouvée dans le discours, mais qu’elle n’a eu aucun impact réel sur le recrutement des troupes pendant la période qui est étudiée.
The article argues that national security was one explanation for the large amounts of state aid given to the SRA. The government considered rayon production vital to state security. This explanation complements previous research about Swedish state aid in the time period, which has mainly been interpreted from the perspective of labour policies. A second explanation is provided by the Swedish system of corporatism. Sweden has been described as one of the most corporative states in Europe, and the analysis of the aid offered to the SRA shows that the state and the company became more and more interlinked. In the case of the 1983 agreement, most of the text was produced by the two parts together. The article ends with a discussion of the case of the SRA as an example of the dissolution of the prevailing economic policy model in Sweden. This policy had been shaped by the so-called RhenMeidner model, and the state’s aid to the company shows how the model was abandoned, starting the movement towards a new economic policy.
The issue of the public and private operation of welfare services is very much an issue today. There is a common misconception that the privatization of the public sector has been limited to the late twentieth century, but on the contrary, the issue of the private administration of public services is a political problem with a long history. One of the aims of this book is thus to chart the many and varied answers given by politicians down the ages to the question of how best to manage what are now thought of as public services, or public goods. Furthermore, the study sets out to demonstrate how concepts and ideas from the past still play a role in today’s debates about the organization and operation of public services.
I Konsten att skriva en fotnot diskuteras detaljfrågor kring formalia, såsom citat- och referatteknik samt hantering av illustrationer och fotnoter, men framför allt tar författarna ett helhetsgrepp på vetenskaplig formalia. Boken är tänkt att vara ett hjälpmedel att användas under själva skrivandet och ger exempel på en mängd frågeställningar som kan infinna sig för uppsatsskribenten. Hur ska egentligen referenser utformas i en vetenskaplig text? Ska en fotnot stå före eller efter punkten? Hur redovisas internetkällor i källförteckningen?
Boken vänder sig till nya studenter som behöver en bok i behändigt format att hålla hårt i under uppsatsskrivandet, men också till den mer erfarna forskaren som kan behöva en uppslagsbok när det uppstår frågor kring hur hänvisningar ska utformas.
The Post’s historical role must be considered in the context of European society at large. Focus should move away from its organization and development as an institution in isolation. That is the perspective shared by contributors to this anthology.
In the paper we will demonstrate how the commercial restructuring of urban space challenged conservative notions of the common good as well as modern views of social reform and publicness. The modernization of public transport and telecommunications offered new possibilities for urban planning and extending the public sphere. The paper argues that political decisions played a vital role in shaping the management of public services. Discussions over who has the right to organise the common good has remained a leading trope in European history to this day, which makes it all the more important to see how political discourse on this subject have developed and changed over time.
At a half day seminar in Stockholm, 9 May 2018, (the seminar will start at 1:00 pm) we would like to address the general question about early modern mercenaries and military enterprise, and to discuss questions similar to those mentioned above. Our preliminary focus is on Northern Europe and the Baltic Sea area, dependent on what participants might like to add. The seminar is intended to be forward looking. It is our intention to explore opportunities for continued cooperation, and to initiate future research projects around the theme of private and public soldiers in the age of the military entrepreneur.