The Farmers, the Consumers and the State: Redistribution and Conflicts in Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom

In most Western communities redistribution to agriculture seems to have enjoyed a special position. The article focuses this policy during the post-war period in three countries, and asks which effects other interest groups and relationships between farmers and the state have had on redistributional policies. It is often assumed that redistribution produces conflictual political processes. The material suggests that the way conflicts are socialized influences both the level and kind of conflict, and in the long run the pay off to the farmers.