The Crisis Management of the Murder of Olof Palme: A Cognitive-Institutional Approach

Dan Hansén (2000)

The Palme murder has been arguably one of the most dramatic tragedies inflicted upon the Swedish polity in modern times. Therefore, an in-depth study of how this crisis was managed is historically, theoretically and practically relevant. This study provides a fairly detailed account of the night of the murder (February 28, 1986) and the two subsequent months, and focuses on the pivotal occasions for decision-making. The research points to early irregularities and conflicts among the main decision-makers, which added to the inflamed nature of the Palme case, and reveals tensions still visible today. The analysis of the study is structured into six themes, which are grounded in the crisis management literature and which have proved fruitful for analysing the other case studies in this series. The themes selected here are: organisation of the crisis response, problem definition, organisational co-operation and conflict, information management, symbolic crisis communication, and the use of history and of the learning process. The findings in this paper should be of interest to scholars and practitioners alike.