The Swedish Cabinet

Who is it who decides things in Sweden, really? Is it the king? No, the king is the head of state, but he doesn’t make decisions. Maybe it’s parliament: the Riksdag. Yes they do indeed make the laws in Sweden.

But most of the decisions are made by this person: the prime minister. And the rest of the prime minister’s collaborators: the government. Let’s start at the beginning. When there is a parliamentary election, the Riksdag’s speaker suggests who should be prime minister. Then the whole Riksdag gets to make the final decision.

The prime minister then selects who else will be in the government’s cabinet. Those in the cabinet are called ministers, and are usually members of the Riksdag. But a minister does not need to have a seat in parliament. The prime minister can appoint whomever they believe is fit for the job of minister. There are usually around twenty ministers in a cabinet.

The Riksdag is Sweden’s law-making assembly. But someone must actually see to it that the Riksdag’s decisions are executed. That is the cabinet’s job. The government’s cabinet is Sweden’s executive body. The Cabinet meet every week, in its office at Rosenbad, in the middle of Stockholm.

They arrive at their decisions collectively. All the ministers are responsible for the cabinet’s decisions, even if some of them hold varied opinions on some issues. Does that sound like a lot of work for only twenty ministers, to execute everything the Riksdag decides? Yes, but the cabinet ministers don’t do everything themselves. They have the help of the Government Office.

Working here are about five thousand people: lawyers, secretaries, and experts in many different fields. Most of them are not working for any particular party. They are apolitical civil servants, so if a new government is formed after an election, they remain in their job. The Government Office is divided into ten different sections, or departments. The Finance Minister is in charge of the Finance Department.

The Defence Minister, the Defence Department, and so on. And there’s one department that configures and coordinates the work of all the departments: The Council of Ministers. This department gives instructions to various authorities, and it’s here that policy decisions actually come to affect the citizens. In school, for example: the Education Minister leads the Education Department, which gives instructions to the local authorities that run Sweden’s schools. And the local authorities formulate the curriculum requirements that your teacher refers to when they set your assignments.

So in this way, a decision made by the government can affect you personally. Even though the cabinet cannot by itself dictate the law, it does have a huge amount of power. It is most often the cabinet that proposes new laws and changes in laws to the Riksdag. They appoint several important leaders: directors general and regional governors. It is the cabinet that formulates instructions to the various authorities, describing what should be done about each issue.

The cabinet also has the power to enter into agreements with other countries. The cabinet is Sweden’s executive body. The prime minister appoints the ministers who will be in the cabinet. The prime minister is appointed by parliament, the Riksdag. The cabinet suggests new laws and changes in existing laws to the Riksdag, and performs what the Riksdag decides.

Several of the ministers lead departments, with responsibility for various areas. The departments give instructions to the country’s local authorities, who carry out the work.