Mellan trafikpolitiska principer och teknikoptimism : Socialdemokratin och sjöfartssektorns omvandling efter 1963 års trafikpolitiska beslut

• The introduction of the cost-bearing principle as part of the 1963 white paper on transport policy (1963 års trafikpolitiska beslut) is usually considered as the major transport policy change in Sweden during the post-war period. However, as the white paper almost exclusively focused on issues related to road-railway competition, previous research has neglected its significance for the gradual policy shift within the maritime sector which begun in the middle of the 1960s. The Social Democrats begun to analyse important contemporary trends in the shipping sector and make forecasts concerning future scenarios. It was concluded that since international competitiveness of the large export firms was at stake, government maritime policy should encourage them to adapt their transport and logistics chains to the new conditions which emerged during the 1960s.Against this background, this paper deals with how this policy shift was manifested during the decision-making process concerning the icebreaker Njord during the period 1965–1967. During this decision-making process, that state demonstrated a new policy-making style in relation to the icebreaking policy during the 1950s. Instead of relying on cooperation and consensus-building within corporatist arrangements, the state wanted to persuade stakeholders in the forestry and metals sectors to modernize their transport and logistics systems. Winter shipping was framed as a technical system, where icebreakers were integrated with firm-controlled elements such as freight vessels, port facilities and land transports. In this respect, stakeholders were expected to adapt the system introduced by the forestry firm Skandinaviska Cellulosa Aktiebolaget (SCA), which in 1965 began concentrating its export traffic on two deep-water terminals, thereby ceasing to use a large number of small, often shallow landing places. Three specially designed cargo vessels were also built to guarantee year-round shipping with icebreaker assistance. Through this system-building approach, the Social Democrats and then-minister of communications Olof Palme were able to negotiate the investment in Njord through the constrains presented by the cost-bearing principle. Since the icebreakers were becoming integrated in a modernized technical system for winter shipping, a new icebreaker could be motivated from a wider industrial reform perspective rather than as an isolated transport policy issue.

Subject headings

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

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

Keyword

ekonomisk historia

Economic History

Publication and Content Type

vet (subject category)

art (subject category)