Vetenskapssocieteten exists to promote humanist research, in part by providing support to younger researchers.

Nilsson’s dissertation, the Society notes, “makes an important contribution to the study of the relationship between state revenue and regime formation”. 

The statement continues: 
“The dissertation — which is based on case studies of the Swedish kings Gustav Vasa, Karl XI, and Gustav III — demonstrates that early modern rulers often had private incomes, which made them politically autonomous. As a result, the development of representative institutions was stymied, as was extensions of political rights and liberties for other groups in society. The dissertation makes interesting connections between political conditions today, not the least in oil states, and political conditions existing hundreds of years ago. Consequently, it contributes both to historical research and to social science”.