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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 April 2015
In the dispute over Norwegian EEC membership in 1972, a large number of economists in academic life and public administration took part in organised opposition against future membership. Their efforts to prevent economic and financial integration with the Common Market are important for understanding the depth and strength of Norwegian Euroscepticism. This article shows how this scepticism was rooted in the economic profession's reasoning about economic planning and economic policy making. Special attention is given to the opposition from economists within the government apparatus itself, as this both diminished the authority of the government's pro-membership arguments and challenged norms regulating civil servants’ conduct.
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23 Per Schreiner's letter, 26 Jul. 1972 to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, PA 387/1972, FIN.
24 A large number signed the petition against membership. According to Svein Longva, a lifelong economist in Statistics Norway (Director General 1991–2004), there was one known supporter of membership in Statistics Norway's Research Department and one at the Department of Economics. Conversation with author, Apr. 2008.
25 Kleppe, Kleppepakke, 203, 216; conversation with Kleppe, 6 Apr. 2009.
26 See, for example, Ragnar Frisch in Dagbladet, 9 Nov. 1961. Frisch used this phrase (Det uopplyste pengeveldet) in the titles and leads of several journal and newspaper articles in 1961.
27 Leif Johansen in Sosialøkonomen 9–10/1979: 6–10.
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38 Per Kleppe explains that he himself had nothing against publication, but that people at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as well as other cabinet members were clearly opposed to such publication. Conversation with Kleppe, 6 Apr. 2009.
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56 Morgenavisen, 20 Sept. 1972.
