Regulatory change and international co-operation:

Abstract

The article deals with the issue of international co-operation and co-ordination in the Scandinavian communication industries. While many studies have been made of the international organizations regulating these industries, little has been said about the various voluntary, often informal, bilateral and multilateral agreements that exist outside such organizations. Yet those agreements were influential in shaping the international Scandinavian communications system as well as the national systems. In this article we study the evolution of a Scandinavian forum for co-operation in telecommunications and other network industries during the first half of the twentieth century. One important finding is the path-dependent nature of the co-operation. Once the national authorities had been brought together and their co-operation became fruitful, the field for such eciion expanded into other issues. Another finding is that as the Scandinavian authorities became more closely connected, they could use this to their advantage in other international organizations.