Regulating a Controversy : Inside Stakeholder Strategies and Regime Transition in the Self-Regulation of Swedish Advertising 1950–1971

• This thesis concerns the development of the self-regulation of advertising in Sweden from 1950 until 1971. Self-regulation was initiated in the 1930s due to a business desire to regulate fair competition in marketing, and while it initially was a minor operation, the 1950s and 1960s were characterized by extensive development. When self-regulation was overtaken by state policies in 1971, it included several interlocking systems, of which parts survived the introduction of the state regime. The thesis’ aim has been to analyze how the rapid regime transitions in the self-regulation regime can be understood.The existing literature identifies four major transitions that occurred during the studied time period. To understand them, the thesis has studied the policy processes leading up to these transitions. Focus has been on the business interest organizations that controlled the regime and their regulatory strategies. Theoretically, the analysis has departed from the hypothesis that tensions between these organizations, due to their members’ different market interests and varying levels of exposure to regulation and public badwill, to a significant degree informed their strategic choices as well as policy outcomes.The results show that the policy processes preceding the regime transitions were characterized by internal tensions, whereby organizations representing advertisers, and to a lesser degree media carriers, due to their members’ higher level of exposure to regulation and public badwill, successfully supported stronger market policing, while ad agencies, being less exposed, as well as a peak industry organization for the proliferation of marketing largely opposed such measures, preferring a more lenient regulation. However, due to increased exposure to regulation and bad will, the ad agencies finally abandoned their opposition and took the lead in regulatory innovation through the introduction of an extensive clearance program that survived the launch of the state regime, becoming a key component in the co-regulatory structure that followed.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Ekonomi och näringsliv -- Ekonomisk historia (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Economics and Business -- Economic History (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

advertising

advertising criticism

advertising regulation

advertising history

advertising industry

affluent society

business

business associations

business history

business interest organizations

business studies

competition

consumer

consumer politics

consumer history

consumerism

co-regulation

corporatism

economic history

history

interest groups

market regulation

marketing

marketing history

marketing regulation

marketer

policy studies

policy process

political economy

political science

postwar

regime

regulation theory

self-regulation

market self-regulation

self-regulation history

stakeholder

Sweden

efterkrigstiden

ekonomisk historia

företagsekonomi

företagshistoria

historia

intressegrupper

konsumentfrågor

konsumentpolitik

konsumenthistoria

konsumenträtt

korporatism

lagstiftning

marknad

marknadsföring

marknadsföringshistoria

marknadsregleringar

marknadsrätt

näringslivet

näringslivsorganisationer

politisk ekonomi

regleringar

regleringsteori

reklam

reklambranschen

reklamhistoria

rättshistoria

samhällsvetenskap

samreglering

självreglering

socialdemokratin

statsvetenskap

Sverige

Ekonomisk historia

Economic History

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