Holmqvist Mikael
Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden.
Br J Sociol. 2025 Mar;76(2):355-375. doi: 10.1111/1468-4446.13173. Epub 2024 Nov 30.
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.
在本文中，我探讨了瑞典国王卡尔十六世·古斯塔夫如何系统地尊崇在过去几十年里主导瑞典社会的国家商业和企业精英，这一过程伴随着从传统社会民主主义到新自由主义的根本性转变，即一个以公司和市场逻辑为特征的社会。通过推崇商业和企业精英，国王有助于增强他们相对于其他群体的地位和合法性，与此同时，他也再现了自己作为“企业之王”的精英地位和形象。为了研究这种双重精英合法化现象，我考察了国王作为瑞典国家元首履行官方职责时的三项主要活动：(a) 向企业领导人颁发最具声望的皇家勋章；(b) 邀请这些精英参加官方皇家晚宴；(c) 进行国事访问，在这些访问中，企业精英相对于其他精英群体被赋予了特殊地位。基于关于一位在世君主活动的这一独特数据，我反驳了当今社会学家的普遍假设，即王室成员，尤其是君主，是无权的人物，因此作为研究对象无关紧要。通过尊崇商业及其领导人，君主有助于使新自由主义合法化，从而加强其霸权以及他们自身的地位。因此，他们不仅是象征性人物，而且也行使着实际权力。
