Swedish Politics

Helena Wockelberg PhDDepartment of Government,

Uppsala University

Today’s agenda1 Historical back ground, super brief!

2 What is a political system?

3 Swedish Politics-division of power-government and opposition-political elites.

4 Local level politics .

5 Small Group Discussions.

1. Historical back ground

Peaceful transition to democracy, first democratic election 1921.

Why peaceful?Constitutional safe guards to ‘loser’.Back ward-legitimacy, ‘looks the same’.Political culture, politics as cooperation (most

important according to scholars).

Culture: post-materialism

What is politics about?-Survival or self-expression?-Sources of legitimacy: traditional or

secular/rational?

The mature democratic welfare state: individualism and equality.

Swedish political culture?Source: Photo Jacob Forsell/www.imagebank.se

2. What is a political system?

Categorizing democracies Lijphart pose questions concerning two dimensions:

- federal/unitary, i.e. division of power or not?

- executive party dimension, conditions for governing such as the relationship between government and opposition.

Federal or unitary?

1 Is the system formally a federation or is power centralized?

2 Is legislative power shared or unitary?3 Are constitutions rigid or flexible?4 Can other than legislative institutions, e.g. a

supreme court, change or stop legislation?5 Is the central bank autonomous?

Executive party dimension

1 What type of electoral system: majoritarian or proportional?

2 Type of government? Majority, minority, single-party, coalition.

3 Party system, two or more parties?4 Executive-legislative relationship(s).5 Organized interests, pluralism or

corporativism?

Two models (ideal types):

Consensus-oriented multi-partyproportional corporativistic

Majoritarian two partydisproportional pluralism

So what?!

While majoritarian democracies feature more efficient governments, consensus democracies are

‘more likely to be welfare states; [...] have a better record with regard to protection of the environment; they put fewer people in prison and are less likely to use the death penalty; and [...] are more generous with their economic assistance to the developing nations’ (Lijphart 1999, p. 275f).

3. Sweden, a consensus democracy?

Surely some similarities with the ideal type but also some majoritarian features.

Also, Lijphart’s data quite old.

Unitary power structures

• Centralized government, but local government independence protected by the constitution.

• Legislative powers concentrated to uni -cameral parliament (but then there is the EU).

• Quite easy to change the constitution.• Weak institutions for judicial review.• Autonomous central bank.

Executive party dimension

1 Electoral system: highly proportional, which is a feature of consensus-democracies, the goal is representativeness.

Now, according to Lijphart’s model this makes us expect broad coalition governments, but instead the most common government type in Sweden is a minority, single-party government!

continued

Explanations to minority governments forming may be found under some of the other headings:

(3) Party system variables-How many effective parties are there?-Dominating party in the middle?-Is Sweden a majoritarian two-party system in

disguise?-Other ways of cooperating.

Explaining minority single party governments continued

(4) Executive-legislative relationship, is parliament strong enough for parties to prefer staying in opposition?

The strength of the Riksdag is debated - strong in international comparison-challenged by EU membership and budget

reform (1990’s).

Finally, last factor (not explaining minority government though):

5 Organized interests: corporativism or pluralism?

Who participates when doing what?Exclusive or inclusive?Sweden has moved from corporativism to

pluralism.

Swedish elites

Leaders in business, mass media, culture sector, science, public administration, organised interests are commonly men, educated, have an educated father.

Data on gender, social class, family back ground etc. teaches us that among elites, the Swedish political elite is in relative terms less exclusive than other elites.

Swedish Political Elites: Ministers

Wanted: Educated 49years old man born in Sweden, Swedish Parents.

Swedish political elites: Ministers

*Education*Ethnical back ground*Professional back ground

4 Local government

Elections on regional and local level.

From thousands to 290 municipal governments.

Formally governed by coalitions, majority appoints most important executive posts.

Most local politicians do not quit their day job.

Local government

Have the right to collect taxes, but state level act as Robin Hood.

Are sometimes perceived to be central government’s apparatus for implementing welfare policies: lower level education, health care etc.

Formally independent but regulations and transactions limit local government.

5. Small Group Discussion

Compare versions of Swedish politics: mine, yours.

Reflect on strengths and weaknesses of the Swedish political system. For example in terms of possible challenges for Swedish governments in our time.

Compare with other political contexts.

Thank You for Your time!