Propagandastudier: Kooperativa förbundet, demokratin och det fria tankelivet på 1930-talet

Abstract

Propaganda Studies: The Swedish Cooperative Union, Democracy, and Free Thinking in the 1930s. This article investigates educational efforts of the Swedish Cooperative Union (Kooperativa förbundet, KF) during the late interwar period. It focuses on how KF dealt with the fact that propaganda could be a very effective tool of persuasion – e.g. as commercial advertising – but that it also could undermine democracy. For KF, a prolific and innovative advertiser as well as a strong proponent of democratic ideals, this was a real conundrum. Using study guides, books and journals published by KF as sources, this article investigates how members of its study groups were instructed to think about propaganda and its role in society. It is argued that members were taught a form of critical acceptance of propaganda, one that not only legitimized its role in the market, but in democratic public life as well.