Royal power in the market‐oriented society: The Swedish King's consecration of business and corporate elites

Abstract

In this paper, I examine how the King of Sweden, Carl XVI Gustaf, systematically consecrates the nation's business and corporate elites who have come to dominate Swedish society during the last decades concomitant with a fundamental transformation from traditional social‐democracy to neoliberalism, that is, a society characterized by the logic of corporations and markets. By promoting the business and corporate elites, the King contributes to strengthening their status and legitimacy in relation to other groups, while at the same time he reproduces his own elite status and image as a “corporate king.” In order to examine this dual elite legitimation, I have studied three major official duties in the King's official role as Sweden's head of state: (a) the awarding of the most prestigious royal medals to corporate leaders; (b) the invitation of these elites to official royal dinners; and (c) state visits, whereby the corporate elites are given a peculiar status in relation to other elite groups. Based on this unique data on the activities of a living monarch, I refute the common assumption among sociologists today that royals, and particularly monarchs, are powerless figures and therefore irrelevant as study objects. By consecrating business and its leaders, monarchs contribute to legitimizing neoliberalism, thus strengthening its hegemony, as well as their own standing. Hence, they are not only symbolic figures, but exercise real power as well.