Nearly in every country of the world the parliament is an integral part of state structure. The role of this body is to secure proper functioning of legislature. Its importance varies slightly from country to country. In connection with the recent parliamentary elections in Belarus it would be interesting to turn to Swedish experience, since it is a country whose parliamentary system, where legislature is playing an effective role in building up a social and jural state, is regarded one of the best systems in modern Europe. For 8-10 years already Belarus has been enjoying friendly relations with this country, and our historic connection traces back to Rahnieda’s times.*

Swedish Constitution is a consolidated document consisting of four Acts: the form of government Act (1974), the throne inheritance Act (1810), the freedom of press Act (1949), the freedom of expression Act which took effect in 1991. Apart from that we can’t but mention the Riksdag Act of 1974, which takes and intermediary position between the main law and a usual statutory law.

As is well known, Sweden is a parliamentary monarchy, where the parliament is the major representative body (named “Riksdag” in Sweden), the King is the head of the state, and the executive power belongs to the government formed by the Riksdag.

Since 1971 one-chamber parliament has been functioning in Sweden. Parliamentary elections are held every 4 years, all the adult Swedish citizens, who live in or outside Sweden, vote in the elections.

Before the elections all the territory of Sweden is divided into 29 electoral districts, where 10-12 or so representatives are elected.

The electoral system in Sweden is proportional, which guarantees nearly exact proportionality between the number of votes for a party and the number of sits it wins in the Riksdag.

Besides, 349 deputies are elected into the Riksdag; 310 district mandates are singled out, and the remaining 39 are reserved as “balance”. A party that gains fewer than 12% of the votes cannot win a single sit in the parliament. The remaining parties get mandates which are distributed in “Lagu method” (“odd numbers method”). According to this method the number of votes a party wins is divided in 14, and then in 3; 5; 7, etc. in series. The results of this division shows how many mandates a party gets. And then to achieve maximum proportionality the central election committee distributes 39 “balance” mandates. This is done by summing all the votes for a party so that they could get mandates according to the principle of proportionality.

However the parties which do not gain 4% of the votes throughout the whole country cannot take part in the distribution of “balance” mandates. Thus smaller parties cannot have their representatives in the Riksdag.

After the elections the Riksdag is summoned/meets for a regular meeting/session, which usually starts in September. A parliamentary year consists of 2 sessions: autumn and summer. General political questions, the following year budget and foreign policy are discussed at the sessions.

Parliamentary activity is governed by the chairman – Talman – and his deputies. According to the form of government Act Talman is the second person in the state after the Prime Minister. Talman nominates Prime Minister for election in the parliament, deals with the dissolution of parliament (when the Riksdag cannot elect the Prime Minister after 4 elections). In the absence of the person who is to be in charge of regent’s duties according to the throne inheritance Act, Talman becomes an temporary/interim regent. Talman cannot take part in parliamentary discussions and voting.

Various committees are a considerable part of the Riksdag. There are 17 of them nowadays: the constitutional committee, financial, legislative, social, communal, etc. Each of them deals with respective questions and bills.

According to legislative competence Sweden can be referred to a parliamentary group with absolute legislative competence.

Swedish Constitution says that the Riksdag passes laws, makes decisions about taxes and sets the order of using public funds.

The Riksdag takes decisions on various issues. These issues are based on propositions from the government or the members of the parliament. After a bill is registered Talman proposes it for consideration. After the fifteen-day term of examination of the bill the members of the parliament can present their counter-propositions. Afterwards the bill is sent to the respective parliamentary committee. The committee dealing with the bill can demand additional information, and after the examination announce their conclusions in the form of notification. The project is again sent to the parliament for consideration, and then comes the time for the election. After the law is passed the notification signed by Talman is sent to the government.

Apart from passing laws one of the main functions of the Riksdag is parliamentary control of governmental activity and ministries. The main forms of control are: the activity of the constitutional committee , parliamentary ombudsmen and parliamentary inspectors, deputies’ inquiries, voting of no-confidence.

Constitutional committee deals with ministers’ reports on their activity and observes the functioning of the government. That’s why constitutional committee has the right of access to all the governmental papers. The committee sends its results to the parliament yearly as special notifications, where governmental activity is estimated.

Ombudsman institution was founded in 1809. Nowadays there are 4 ombudsmen in the parliament. They supervise the functioning of all the state structures and city governments with their personnel, and other officials; they conduct regular revisions of state structures; they have the right to bring a disciplinary action. Ombudsmen are absolutely independent, and the Riksdag does not meddle with their affairs. However official notifications of ombudsmen are considered in one of the parliamentary committees.

The functioning of the 12 parliamentary inspectors is aimed at uncovering how the authorities use the bankroll for their activities.

Deputy inquiries – interpellations and questions – is a means of deputy control of governmental affairs. Interpellations and questions are addressed to ministers who reply to them weekly in their turn.

The Riksdag can declare vote of censure to Prime Minister, which means that the whole government is to resign.

It is noteworthy that Sweden was the last Scandinavian country to establish parliamentarism and call a general election to the main representative body and to experience the so called “democratic explosion” took place in 1917-1921. Scandinavian influence could be traced throughout the whole history of Belarus especially in the evolution of country’s state-legal mechanisms. We can’t deny that one day Swedish experience in parliamentary development will be used in Belarusan legislature. Who knows, maybe National Assembly will have returned to its historic name of “sojm” by then like Swedish parliament did?..

* Andrej Kotlarčuk, Swedes in the history and culture of Belarusians, Miensk 2002, Encyklapedyks, P. 272.

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References and sources

Encyclopedia Britannica (1988) "Sweden" in Encyclopedia Britannica Macromedia vol. 28. Chicago: University of Chicago

Bergstrom, Hans (1991) " Sweden’s Politics and Party System at the Crossroads". London: Frank Cass

Hadenius, Stig (1988) " Swedish politics during the 20th century: conflict and consensus. Stockholm: Swedish Institute

Sveriges Riksdag (2000) The Riksdag at work available at : http://www.riksdagen.se/english/work/fundamental/introduction

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Maryna Chlaba (born in 1982, Homiel) – tax adviser at foreign enterprise Deloitte & Touche in Miensk. Graduated from BSU, faculty of international relations, department of “international law”. Her scientific interests cover foreign economic activity, taxes.