MaktkartanPublished: Text updated:
All public power proceeds from the people
The Instrument of Government opens by stating that all public power in Sweden proceeds from the people and is exercised through a representative and parliamentary form of government. In practice the voters elect the Riksdag every four years, the Riksdag in turn decides who may form a government, and the government depends on the Riksdag tolerating it.
The Riksdag
The Riksdag has 349 members and is the foremost representative of the people. It legislates, decides the state budget and taxes, scrutinises the government and the agencies, and considers Sweden's relations with other states. The work is prepared in committees, which issue reports that the chamber then decides upon.
The government and the ministries
The government governs the realm and is accountable to the Riksdag. It consists of the prime minister and the other ministers. The Government Offices, with their ministries, prepare government business. The government decides collectively: individual ministers do not normally decide on their own.
The agencies
Decisions are carried out by central government agencies. They are subordinate to the government, but may not be directed in individual cases concerning the exercise of public authority against a private person or the application of law. This is often called the ban on ministerial rule and is set out in the Instrument of Government.
The courts
The courts adjudicate independently. No public authority, not even the Riksdag, may determine how a court is to rule in an individual case. Sweden has general courts, administrative courts and a number of specialised courts, with the Supreme Court and the Supreme Administrative Court at the top.
The fundamental laws as the frame
The four fundamental laws stand above all other law and are amended only through two identical Riksdag decisions with an election in between. Together with the principle of public access to official documents, they make the work of the state possible to follow from the outside, which is the whole basis for a site such as this one.