A Narrowing Atlantic? On the Influence of the American ‘New Deal’ on Norwegian Social Democratic Politics between 1935 and 1953

Abstract

This thesis discusses the influence of the American New Deal on Norwegian postwar reconstruction. The first two chapters discuss the interwar and wartime periods in Norway and the US separately. The last chapter then discusses Norwegian reconstruction, contextualising it within the radicalisation of the Cold War in Europe, and analyses the way Roosevelt, the New Deal and the Tennessee Valley Authority functioned as political symbols during Norwegian reconstruction. The main argument proposed is that US politics were used by the AP-affiliated press as a means to discuss problems relating to ‘democracy’ and ‘planning’, which were important symbols at the time. The ideological contest over the meaning of these terms was important in leading Arbeiderpartiet to embrace the US left as a model of progressive politics, particularly in the fields of applied technology and industrial management. I here treat the Tennessee Valley Authority as a paradigm of this influence, discussing how it came to be conceived as an ideal model for grass-root democratic politics. My thesis stands in the tradition of Rune Slagstad and Francis Sejersted’s studies of ‘modernity’ in Norway, and attempts to supplement their work by linking the domestic vision of modernity to the image of the US in Norwegian social democratic discourse. Furthermore, I make use of theory borrowed from contemporary political philosophy and science. I also build on both history of ideas and economic history, linking these together in one consolidated account of ideological evolution in Arbeiderpartiet.