Sweden's political system

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article deals with the Swedish political system , the entirety of political and state actors, institutions and decision-making processes in the country. Sweden is organized as a decentralized unitary state and parliamentary monarchy . The parties directly competing against each other and the Reichstag , which is charged with electing the Prime Minister , are of central importance . The King of Sweden as head of state only performs representative tasks.

Central element of Swedish democracy: the Reichstag .

Constitution

The Swedish Constitution consists of four basic laws:

The Basic Law on the form of government corresponds most closely to the ideal type of the modern constitution.

The King Carl XVI. Gustaf and Silvia of Sweden on the wedding day of Crown Princess Victoria

Head of state

According to the Basic Law on the Form of Government (Regeringsformen) , Sweden's head of state is the King of Sweden or the regent determined by the order of succession. The succession to the throne is regulated by another basic law, succession regulations.

According to the constitution, the duties of the head of state are purely representative and ceremonial. In contrast to the heads of state in other European monarchies, he does not sign any laws, does not appoint a government and does not represent the country under international law.

The king is politically neutral and has few roles in the country's political life. These include:

  • The annual opening of the Reichstag's business year, the so-called "Riksmöte".
  • The chair of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs ("Utrikesnämnden"). He must be called upon when important foreign policy decisions are made and, in the event of war, he decides to set up the 50-member emergency parliament ("Krigsdelegation"). Although the King presides, he is not a full member. As chairman, however, he may determine whether the content of the meeting is subject to confidentiality.

The head of state enjoys political immunity .

Legislature (the Reichstag)

The plenary hall of the Reichstag.

Sweden has a unicameral parliament with the Reichstag . It consists of 349 MPs who are elected by proportional representation and using a modified Sainte-Laguë / Schepers procedure . In the Reichstag election in September 1921 , women had the first right to vote . A legislative period lasts four years. Election day is usually the second Sunday in September. Extraordinary elections can be determined by the government or, if the election of a prime minister fails, by the president of the Reichstag. At the provincial or municipal level, the respective parliamentary bodies can, after consultation with the provincial government and the electoral authority, schedule extraordinary elections. The election always takes place on a Sunday.

The parties represented in the Reichstag form parliamentary groups (Swedish riksdags group ), the functioning of which is not regulated by law. The political groups decide for themselves how they want to work; they get financial support.

The most important tasks of the Reichstag are:

  • Election of prime minister
  • legislation
  • Decision-making regarding the state budget, taxes and duties
  • Government control
  • Dismissal of individual members of the government or the prime minister by means of a vote of no confidence

The universal suffrage for men since 1907/1909 law. The women's suffrage at the national level, as part of a constitutional reform introduced from 1919 to 1921. The active and passive right to vote for women was introduced with the resolution of May 1919; for procedural reasons, however, the amendment did not come into force until 1921: a constitutional amendment required two resolutions in the Swedish parliament, and between them there had to be a general election.

Constitutional amendment

In order to change the constitution, a proposed amendment in the Reichstag first requires a simple majority . If this has come about, the proposal must be accepted again with a simple majority in the following legislative period. In any case, there must be a Reichstag election between the two votes so that the people can influence the party or majority relationships in the second vote. The proposal must also be submitted no later than nine months before the Reichstag election.

In addition to this type of constitutional amendment, which is most common in practice, there are also modifications to this procedure.

Legislation by consensus

Bills can be introduced by the government (Proposition) or by MPs (Motion). In the case of complex legislative projects , a consensus -based "drawback procedure" is used. A commission is then appointed to investigate the matter. The results of the commission are published (“Statens Offentliga Utredningar”, SOU) and are sent to all public and private institutions concerned so that they can comment on them. Only after this discussion process does the government make a proposal ("proposition") which contains the most important research results, statements and the actual legislative proposal. In the committees of the Reichstag, there are seldom substantial changes to the proposed law that has been reached in this way. The Reichstag resolves or rejects the legislative proposal or refers it back to the committee (through a third of the members). Different rules apply to the determination of the state budget. Since a budget decision is mandatory for the following budget year, the opposition cannot reject the government's proposal without putting an alternative budget to the vote. Due to this construction, even a minority government can usually receive a positive Reichstag resolution for its budget proposal. However, if the opposition unanimously votes in favor of a counter-proposal, the government may be forced to govern with the opposition's budget. This occurred after the 2014 Reichstag elections when the Sweden Democrats voted in favor of the Alliance's draft budget for Sweden .

Duration of the Reichstag mandate

The term of office of the Reichstag ends with the first session of the newly elected Reichstag. This usually meets on the 15th day after the day of the general election.

The government has the right to call new elections. In this case, the legislative period of a Reichstag resulting from new elections only lasts until the end of the regular election period. These elections are therefore not referred to as new elections ( nyval ), but as “extra elections” ( extra val or extraval ). The government may call such an election no earlier than three months after the first meeting of the Reichstag. Governments in office do not have this right.

Even if the proposal of the President of the Reichstag for the election of the Prime Minister is rejected four times in a row, such an extraordinary election must be carried out.

Extraordinary elections must be held within three months.

Emergency regulation

In the event of a crisis, a war delegation consisting of the President of the Reichstag and 50 members of the Reichstag can be elected for a term of four years to replace the Reichstag.

executive

The government

The Swedish government consists of the Prime Minister (Swedish statsminister ) and the ministers (Swedish statsråd ). Only the Prime Minister is elected by the Reichstag, the ministers are appointed by the Prime Minister and announced to the Reichstag. The election of the Prime Minister is preceded by a proposal by the President of the Reichstag, which he makes after consultation with all parliamentary groups and his deputy. The candidate proposed by him is elected if not more than half of the members of the Reichstag vote against him. If the election of a prime minister is unsuccessful after four attempts, the election will be aborted and may only be held again after a Reichstag election. It is not absolutely necessary that a new Prime Minister be elected after a Reichstag election. Rather, a new Reichstag must determine within two weeks of its first meeting whether the Prime Minister continues to have the confidence of the Reichstag. This means that a government can possibly remain in existence if, after the election, it no longer has its own majority, but there is also no majority for the election of another prime minister.

The Reichstag can vote out the prime minister or a minister by a vote of no confidence . If the government sets an early Reichstag election within a week of the vote, the ministers concerned remain in office for the time being.

The government takes its decisions collectively, with consensus being determined by the Prime Minister.

The ministers are i. d. Usually assigned to one of the ten ministries (swed. Department ), either as their head or as a department head. The main task of the ministries is the preparation of government decisions in the respective specialist area. In contrast to many other countries, however, the ministries are not allowed to issue instructions to the authorities subordinate to them (this East Nordic form of administration is also practiced in Finland).

The administration

Sweden is a decentralized unitary state , so it is not organized on a federal level. However, the municipalities are self-governing bodies with a certain degree of autonomy.

State administration

The company registration office in Sundsvall.

The state administration is subordinate to the government. Each authority (Swedish Ämbetsverk ) is assigned to a ministry. The authorities are responsible for the implementation of the resolutions and ordinances passed by the Reichstag and the government, but are independent in their implementation, as they are not bound by instructions.

Each authority is headed by a Director General and a Board of Directors, chaired by the Director General. Their activities are regulated by the Administrative Act of 1986. The authorities are usually not located in the capital, Stockholm, but in other cities.

Regional administration

In order to carry out regional state administration tasks, the country is divided into 21 provinces (swedish län ). The regional administrative tasks are carried out by a provincial government (swed. Länsstyrelse ), the chairman of which is the district president (swed. Landshövding ) appointed by the government for six years . Among other things, the provincial governments are responsible for the police, public transport and road safety, civil defense, agriculture and fishing, animal welfare and many others.

Local government

Stockholms Landsting on Kungsholmen.
Municipal administration in Lerum.

The municipal administration takes place on two levels: the municipality (swedish commun ) and the provincial council (swed. Landsting ). At both levels there are decision-making bodies elected by the people every four years.

The municipalities (so-called primary municipalities), the number of which has been reduced from around 2,500 to 290 through amalgamation between 1952 and the present, are entrusted with the implementation of tasks within the framework of local self-government. Important tasks include a. childcare, education (elementary schools and grammar schools), social services, care for the elderly and the care of the disabled, urban planning and construction, etc. a.

The provincial parishes (so-called secondary municipalities) are responsible for tasks within the framework of local self-government that are too extensive for individual municipalities. The most important task is the health system, nursing care and regional public transport .

Municipalities and provincial parliaments finance their activities primarily through the collection of direct income taxes.

Judiciary

The Swedish judicial system in criminal and civil law is organized on three levels: the courts of first instance ( tingsrätt ), courts of second instance ( hovrätt ) and the third instance, the Supreme Court ( Högsta domstolen ) . The latter is the final instance in civil and criminal matters , the decisions of the court have prejudicial effect .

The administrative courts also have three instances: Administrative courts of the first instance ( förvaltningsrätt ), the second instance ( kammarrätt ) and the Supreme Administrative Court ( Högsta förvaltningsdomstolen ) .

Parties

Eight parties have been represented in the Swedish Reichstag since the 2014 election :

The following parties continued to have seats in the European Parliament in the recent past:

  • The Euro-critical party Junilistan , founded in 2003, won the European Parliament in 2004 with 14.5% of the votes and won three seats. The party could not win a seat in 2009 with 3.6%.
  • The Piratpartiet (Pirate Party), founded in 2006, received a total of 7.13% of the votes in the 2009 European elections and was able to secure a seat. When the European Parliament was expanded to 751 seats, the party received another mandate. In the 2010 Reichstag election , however, the party could no longer build on this success and received only 0.63% of the vote. In the 2014 European elections, the party fell below the 4 percent hurdle again.
  • The Feminist Initiative (Fi) party, which was founded in 2005 with the participation of the former chairman of the Vänsterpartiet, Gudrun Schyman , received considerable media attention, but has so far only been able to obtain mandates at local and European level. The Feminist Initiative has currently had one of the 20 Swedish seats in the EU Parliament since 2014, and it is also represented with 27 seats in some local councils.

There are also local and regional parties that send representatives to community assemblies or provincial parliaments.

See also

literature

  • Detlef Jahn : The Swedish political system. In: Wolfgang Ismayr (Ed.): The political systems of Western Europe. 3. Edition. UTB, Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 3825280993 , pp. 93-130.
  • Werner Jann , Jan Tiessen: Legislation in the Swedish political system. In: Wolfgang Ismayr (Ed.): Legislation in Western Europe. EU countries and the European Union. VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden 2008, pp. 99–131.
  • Swedish government: This is how Sweden is governed (PDF file, German).

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Jad Adams: Women and the Vote. A world history. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2014, ISBN 978-0-19-870684-7 , page 437
  2. ↑ Vallagen (electoral law) on the website of the Swedish Reichstag (Swedish)
  3. ↑ a b c Lena Wängnerud: How Women Gained Suffrage in Sweden: A Weaveof Alliances. In: Blanca Rodríguez-Ruiz, Ruth Rubio-Marín: The Struggle for Female Suffrage in Europe. Voting to Become Citizens. Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden and Boston 2012, ISBN 978-90-04-22425-4 , pp. 241-256, p. 241.
  4. ^ A b Mart Martin: The Almanac of Women and Minorities in World Politics. Westview Press Boulder, Colorado, 2000, p. 366.
  5. ↑ Gurgsdies, Erik Sweden. Civil society in the universalistic welfare state, in: Meyer, Thomas (ed.), Praxis der Sozialen Demokratie, Wiesbaden 2006, p. 54f.
  6. ↑ Extraordinary election discontinued - Löfven now governs with the Alliance's budget (Nyheter idag, Swedish).