I urval från Stockholms universitets publikationsdatabas

• An elected Dynasty of Sweden? Blood, Charisma and Representative Monarchy

  2023. Mats Hallenberg. Dynasties and State Formation in Early Modern Europe, 109-133

  Kapitel

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• Stat: Politiska välden i en föränderlig värld

  2022. Mats Hallenberg. Natur och kulturs globalhistoria, 303-343

  Kapitel

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• Bringing the People Back In

  2021. Knut Dørum, Mats Hallenberg, Kimmo Katajala.

  Bok (red)

  The formation of states in early modern Europe has long been an important topic for historical analysis. Traditionally, the political and military struggles of kings and rulers were the favoured object of study for academic historians. This book highlights new historical research from Europe’s northern frontier, bringing ‘the people’ back into the discussion of state politics, presenting alternative views of political and social relations in the Nordic countries before industrialisation. The early modern period was a time that witnessed initiatives from people from many groups formally excluded from political influence, operating outside the structures of central government, and this book returns to the subject of contentious politics and state building from below.

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• The Shifting Politics of Public Services

  2020. Magnus Linnarsson, Mats Hallenberg. Journal of Policy History 32 (4), 463-486

  Artikel

  This article analyses the inherent conflict between public and private interest from a long time-perspective, using the example of Sweden from 1620 to 2000. The main argument is that there have been two equally decisive historical shifts in the political discourse on how to organize public services in the past: First, a shift from an early modern patriarchal discourse to a more expansive articulation of publicness during the nineteenth century. Second, a shift toward privatization and deregulation in the late twentieth century. Both these shifts must be considered to fully explain the changing forms of public organization up to the present day. Theoretically, the concept of “publicness” is used to explain the political discourses on the organization of public services. Drawing on three discursive chains, the argument is that the political development was affected by the politicians’ conception of the political community, the form of organization, and by perceptions of values such as equal access and modernity. Our results demonstrate how and why political arguments for or against private service providers have motivated profound changes in the way public services are perceived of and organized.

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• Manliness, dedication and loyalty

  2019. Mats Hallenberg. Revista de historia Jerónimo Zurita 94 (Primavera), 95-119

  Artikel

  This essay analyze military masculinity in Sweden during the Early Vasa period, c. 1560 – 1590. Masculine notions of violence and domination were essential both for the ruling Vasa dynasty and for the soldiers that filled the ranks of the domestic army. The investigation explores royal propaganda, the military experiences of peasant soldiers as well as protests and grievances from those who came back from war. The development will be analysed as a struggle for hegemony, while the military ideals that had traditionally been reserved for noble warriors was successfully appropriated by commoners, now sanctioned by the monarch.

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• Kampen om det allmänna bästa

  2018. Mats Hallenberg.

  Bok

  Vilka samhällstjänster bör vi gemensamt ta ansvar för? Vem ska sköta exempelvis skatte indrivning, kollektivtrafik och äldreomsorg för det allmännas räkning?

  Motsättningen mellan egennyttan och det allmänna bästa har diskuterats under långa tider. I Kampen om det allmänna bästa utgår historikern Mats Hallenberg från Stockholmspolitiken och visar hur konflikterna om detta evigt aktuella ämne har tett sig under fyrahundra år.

  I det förmoderna samhället var det självklart att kung och överhet skulle avgöra vad som var av allmänt intresse men de praktiska göromålen kunde skötas av olika utförare: anställda tjänstemän, privata entreprenörer eller medborgarna själva. Från 1800-talets mitt började politikerna koppla samman idéer om rättvisa och modernitet med behovet av en offentligt styrd organisation. Denna utveckling bröts först under det sena 1900-talet då individens valfrihet i sig själv kunde definieras som det allmänna bästa och allt fler välfärdstjänster fördes över i privat regi.

  Boken sätter de politiska argumenten i centrum och ger ett historiskt perspektiv på de begrepp och tankefigurer som används i dagens debatt om vinster i välfärden.

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• The quest for publicness

  2017. Mats Hallenberg, Magnus Linnarsson. Scandinavian Economic History Review 65 (1), 70-87

  Artikel

  This article explores political conflicts about the organisation of public services in Sweden c. 1900–1920. The authors argue that political decisions play a vital role in shaping the political economy of public services. The case studies analysed are the political debates about the communalisation of the tramway system in Stockholm, and the nationalisation of Sweden’s last private telephone company. In both cases, the transfer of the service to public organisation was a lengthy process, ending in the late 1910s. This is explained using the concept of publicness. Drawing on three discursive chains, the argument is that the political development was affected by the politicians conception of the political community, the form of organisation and by perceptions of values such as equal access and modernity. In the case of the tramways, public organisation was seen as the best option to defend the public against corruption and self-interest. In the case of the telephones, free market competition was seen as a guarantee for an efficient and cost- effective service. The reason for this difference, is argued, was that the debate on the tramways articulated a clearer notion of publicness, where equal access and public opinion carried larger weight. 

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• Man ur huse

  2016. Mats Hallenberg, Johan Holm.

  Bok

  Den svenska statens historia under 1500- och 1600-talen handlar inte bara om kungar och krig utan också om de undersåtar som tvingades bära stormaktsdrömmen på sina axlar. Genom mer eller min­dre våldsamma protester lyckades bönderna tvinga de styrande att förhandla om den förda politiken.

  Historikerna Mats Hallenberg och Johan Holm studerar de konflikter som skattekraven och rekryteringen av bondesol­dater gav upphov till. Myterier, upplopp och förhandlingar skärskådas – vilka grupper stod bakom motståndet, varför protesterade de och vilket infly­tande fick deras handlande på centralmaktens utveckling?

  Författarna visar på sambandet mellan militarisering och bondeinflytande och problematiserar förhållandet mellan de besuttna skattebönderna och lokalsamhällets fattiga. Böndernas politiska agerande och de kompromisser som följde på förhandlingarna kom att få avgörande betydelse för den moderna statens utformning. Effekterna av dem ser vi än idag.

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• Vem tar bäst hand om det allmänna?

  2016. Mats Hallenberg, Magnus Linnarsson. Historisk Tidskrift (S) 136 (1), 32-63

  Artikel

  This article explores four political debates in the Swedish diet and among the ruling elite in Stockholm on the organization of public services. The results demonstrate how in different ways notions of the common good permeated the discourse on all occasions.

  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.

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• Det förmoderna i det moderna

  2015. Mats Hallenberg. Scandia 81 (2), 26-40

  Artikel

  The premodernity of modern times. Rupture, continuity and the longue durée

  This essay discusses how the concept of ’premodernity’ may be used to encourage the study of long-time perspectives in history, a feature which has become much in demand in recent scholarly debate. I argue that premodernity should be understood not as a chronological description, but as an analytical tool by which to contrast, criticize and discuss modern as well as premodern societies. The notion of a rupture between the premodern and the modern, and the ability to identify important traits in different societies, Mats Hallenberg 37 Scandia 81:2 may provide historians with the means to confront what is neither old nor new, but essentially human. I argue that there are two important benefits of applying the concept of premodernity in historical research. First, it may incite more cooperation between scholars of classic, medieval and early modern periods. Second, it may help us formulate a critique of modernity from a historical perspective by exposing the reproduction of premodern structures, ideas and concepts in contemporary times. By critically addressing the presumptions of ‘modernist’ social theory, scholars of older periods may contribute to make history less “presentist” in the future.

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• The Golden Age of the Aggressive Male?

  2013. Mats Hallenberg. Gender and History 25 (1), 132-149

  Artikel

  This article explores the connection between violence, manhood and state formation in sixteenth-century Sweden. It argues that this period, which experienced the Lutheran Reformation and the establishment of a permanent state organization, also saw a shift in masculine ideals. R. W. Connell’s concept of hegemonic masculinity will serve as a starting point for discussing the conflict between the traditional norms of the ruling aristocracy and the instrumental violence employed by the servants of the king. Judging by the testimony of the time, the process of state formation seems to have triggered a mentality of ruthless self-assertion among the Swedish elites. During the initial phase, when a monopoly of violence had to be asserted by any means, this fiercely uncontrollable masculinity became a vital asset for the leaders of the state. However, as the Swedish quest for empire gained momentum, the aggressive forms of manhood were pushed towards the peripheries of the realm while a rational, calculating masculinity reasserted its dominance at the centre.

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