Magnus Linnarsson is an associate professor of history at Stockholm University. His main research interest includes political history, focusing on institutional change, state formation and political conflicts. His latest book Problemet med vinster (2017) analyzes political conflicts about the organization of public services from the beginning of the seventeenth century until the 1990s. He currently leads a research project about welfare cities in the Nordic countries, c. 1870–1920. Mats Hallenberg is a professor of history at Stockholm University. His main research interest includes the political history of Sweden and Scandinavia from the early modern period up until the twentieth century. Published works address local administration in Sweden and Finland, the impact of tax farming, royal propaganda and military organization, as well as municipal conflicts over the organization of welfare services.