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Historisches Seminar

Monied politics. Business, public relations and the struggle for free enterprise after 1945

  • Stills from a SRF television documentary on the Wirtschaftsförderung («Bericht vor acht», 30 January 1975)

 

This 4-year SNF project (9.2026 – 8.2030) led by Dr. Pierre Eichenberger (University of Lausanne, UNIL) and Prof. Dr. Matthieu Leimgruber (University of Zurich, UZH) investigates the history of public relations campaigns organized by business associations.

The project focuses on the Swiss Wirtschaftsförderung (WF/SDES), founded in 1942 to coordinate business propaganda and channel funds into direct democracy and election campaigns. We use the WF case to analyze how business organizations intervened in politics over decades, funding and coordinating direct democracy campaigns, press agencies, and producing media articles, radio and television programs, as well as industrial and economic films. The extensive archives of the WF offer unparalleled opportunities to study the long-term interplay between corporate money, media formats, and democratic politics.

For a first analysis of the WF/SDES activities, see P. Eichenberger, M. Leimgruber: Monied Politics and Business Influence. The Wirtschaftsförderung (1942–2000), in: H. Buclin (éd.) La Suisse, espace privilégié du néolibéralisme | Die Schweiz, ein idealer Nährboden für den Neoliberalismus, Basel: 2026

The project develops along three research axes.

  • A first PhD project (UZH) – conducted by Cléa Cortolezzis and seconded by Leonardo Stalder – aims to reconstruct the flows of business money into Swiss politics, tracing how the WF distributed resources to campaigns, parties, and allied organizations
  • The second PhD project (UNIL) project – conducted by Alexandre de Montmollin and seconded by Eva Barras – will examine the media formats developed and financed by the WF.
  • The third axis, coordinated by the principal investigators and Dr. Claire-Lise Debluë (UNIL), aims to expand the research field to the international and transnational level. We will explore how similar business associations beyond Switzerland – notably but not exclusively in Britain, Germany and the United States – learned from and inspired each other, adapting strategies of influence across borders through international business forums and personal networks.

The relevance of the MONIED POLITICS research project extends beyond academia. Until 2023, Switzerland lacked any transparency laws on political financing. New disclosure rules have heightened public interest in understanding how money has shaped political outcomes in the past.

By retracing and analyzing decades of undisclosed businessi influence MONIED POLITICS provides historical depth to current debates on democracy, transparency, and media independence.