Sweden Unitary state

History and trends

Sweden is a constitutional parliamentary monarchy. Its Constitution entered into force on 1 January 1975.

The country has a high degree of decentralisation. Local self-government is a long-standing practice and is enshrined in article 1 of the 1974 constitution.

 

Local level:

In the early 1990s there was a movement towards greater decentralisation in the relationship between central government and local governments. The Local Government Act of 1991 (which entered into force in 1992) – the statutory framework for municipal activities – aimed primarily to strengthen local self-government.

At the local level, Sweden has 290 municipalities. Only 67 of them have a population of less than 10,000. The number of municipalities was cut dramatically between 1950 and 1974, down from 2,500 at the start of this period.

Decision-making power rests with the municipal assembly, whose members are elected by direct universal suffrage for a four-year term. There is no hierarchical relationship between the municipalities and the counties. The municipalities have broad responsibilities ranging from personal and social services to environmental protection. However, education and care for the elderly and disabled are far and away their most important areas of intervention.

The municipalities manage emergency services (and are gaining increasing powers in this area), civil defence, transport and communication, water, electricity and culture.

In terms of social services, their remit primarily covers childcare and social programmes for individuals and families.

The municipalities are also responsible for land-use planning. Most of these competences are mandatory, and municipalities are required by law to provide a minimum package of basic services.

Administrative supervision is light-touch and there is no prior supervision. It is not entirely absent, however, since local governments perform many of their tasks in close cooperation with central government agencies, whose local representatives clearly have an influence on local government action. On matters of national interest, government services at the county level may intervene in some areas (planning, building).

There is little in the way of inter-municipal cooperation. In 2000, there were only around 50 inter-municipal consortia, which existed solely to assign public-service status to an activity. It is important to note, however, that Sweden’s municipalities are much bigger than in other countries. As indicated above, private municipal companies and foundations may be jointly owned with other municipalities or with the county. Changes to the law in 1997 introduced a more flexible range of cooperation options.

The municipal merger process was completed in 1974, resulting in 290 municipalities for a population of 9,995,200:

• 1930: Sweden had 2,532 municipalities and the government was already considering plans to merge rural municipalities.
• 1943: A commission report proposed drastic cuts to the number of municipalities in Sweden, notably by forced mergers of the 500 municipalities with a population of less than 500 people.
• 1952: Through compulsory mergers of small rural municipalities, the total number of municipalities in Sweden was reduced to 816. A new commission report indicated that future local government reforms should focus on creating large rural/urban municipalities.
• 1962: Parliament decided that the next local government reforms would be conducted on a voluntary basis. But, in 1964, “municipal blocks” were mapped out with a view, ultimately, to pushing through mergers. The minimum number of inhabitants per municipality was set at 5,000 by law.
• 1969: Parliament decided that the merger process was proceeding to slowly and stepped up the pace.
• 1971: There were 464 municipalities in Sweden.
• 1974: There were 278 municipalities, but a few “divorces” led to the number stabilising at 290.

 

 

Regional level:

The 20 counties (lansting) are both local governments and devolved state entities. The counties are governed by a county council or regional council assembly, whose members are elected by direct universal suffrage for a four-year term. Each council appoints the president of its executive committee and the members of various specialised committees, which enjoy a high degree of autonomy in relation to the rest of the local government. The president of the assembly and the president of the executive committee are two different people.

At the county level, the central government is represented by county administrative councils (län) whose members are appointed by the government at the proposal of the county councils. The county administrative councils are chaired by the country governors, who are appointed by the government for a six-year term. There have been calls in some quarters for these two entities to be merged, but no progress has been made on this question for the time being.

There is no nationwide regional tier. In 1997, following Sweden’s accession to the European Union, there were debates around how activities should be organised at the regional level. The proposals included reducing the number of counties or giving them greater powers.

In some of Sweden’s southern counties, there was a trial (between 1997 and 2002) involving a new distribution of political power and the creation of a regional level. The experiment involved merging several counties to form three “regions”. Where regions were created, the county councils were disbanded. But extending this regionalisation experiment nationwide no longer seems to be on the agenda.

Fresh regionalisation plans have been floated in recent years, involving merging the 21 counties into between 6 and 9 large regions. As things stand, the reforms cover 11 county councils and the creation of 9 regions.

10-year trial period:

Since 1 January 2015, Sweden has had 10 regions. Other counties have opted to merge (in some cases) and to take on board new powers on economic and regional development policy. The process is straightforward, and interested counties simply have to submit an official request to the national government, which allows trials of this type.