How Sweden is governed

This chapter describes how political power in Sweden is divided between the state, the regions and the municipalities, and how the country's system of government works. The Swedish system is described as a parliamentary representative democracy: citizens vote in members to the Riksdag, which has 349 seats and is elected every four years, and the Riksdag in turn decides on laws and the state budget. The Riksdag appoints the prime minister, who then chooses the other ministers in the government. Each autumn the government presents a budget bill showing the policy it wants to pursue, and the parties that don't support the government form the opposition, which scrutinises it and presents alternative proposals.

The state also governs through government agencies, which must follow the law and the government's instructions. Examples mentioned are Arbetsförmedlingen (the employment agency), Försäkringskassan (social insurance), Migrationsverket, Polismyndigheten (the police) and Skatteverket (the tax agency), and the Parliamentary Ombudsman (JO) and the Chancellor of Justice (JK) are tasked with checking that the agencies behave properly.

At the regional level there are Sweden's 21 regions, governed by politicians elected in the regional election, responsible mainly for healthcare as well as public transport and county museums. At the municipal level there are 290 municipalities, with Stockholm the largest, at nearly a million residents, and Dorotea in Västerbotten the smallest, with fewer than 3,000 residents. Municipalities are governed through the municipal council and committees, for example the culture committee and the education committee, and are responsible for things like schools, water and sewage, elderly and child care, and snow removal, i.e. matters that often affect daily life more directly than decisions made in the Riksdag.

Finally, Sweden's system of government is described as a constitutional monarchy: the head of state is a king or queen without political power, with a symbolic role that includes state visits and receiving foreign heads of state. The current king is Carl XVI Gustaf, his daughter Victoria is crown princess, and after her, her daughter Estelle is next in line to become monarch.

Since the chapter contains several exact figures and names, such as the number of Riksdag seats, the number of regions and municipalities, the names of agencies, and the royal line of succession, that is the kind of concrete fact the test may ask about.