Sweden

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Sweden – a pocket guide
Parliament
The Swedish Parliament, riksdagen, has 349 elected members.
The percentage of female MPs has increased, as have
the numbers of women in other important positions in the
country, though the percentages are still lower than the
percentage of women in the population.
The party or coalition of parties that receives the most
votes in a parliamentary election is entitled to form a government,
regering, and rule the country for the next four
years. The government (or cabinet) consists of cabinet
ministers, statsråd, who head or are associated with the various
ministries, departement. There are ten ministries, each
in charge of a particular area. The Ministry for Foreign
Affairs deals with international issues, the Ministry of
Finance handles economic issues, while the Ministry of
Education is in charge of schools and related issues.
Generally speaking, decisions on important issues are not
made directly by the government. Such issues are also
debated in Parliament, and sometimes a commission,
utredning, is established. This entails appointing one or
more people to study an issue and make a recommendation
on what should be done.
The recommendation is detailed in an official report,
which is generally sent to public authorities and organisations
that might have opinions to express on the matter.
If a commission is dealing with integration issues, for
example, the Integration Board, other authorities and many
immigrant associations might be asked to submit opinions
on the report. They draw up a statement of opinion,
remissvar, a letter in which they express their opinions and
perhaps propose amendments. When the politicians eventually
make a decision on the issue, they are required to take
these statements of opinion into consideration.
Democracy