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Demokratiskolan
The Budget card from MethodKit for Society and Politics
Card 14 of 128 · MethodKit for Society & Politics
  • AreaThe state & public administration
  • Centre of gravityCentral government
  • Points of influence2 on the journey
  • Decisive electionThe general election
The state & public administration

Budget

Nation's incomes & expenses

The central government budget is Sweden's most important economic decision: over a thousand billion kronor every year. Behind the numbers lies one of politics' most thoroughly worked-through processes, with fixed steps, frames and votes. And it is repeated in miniature in every municipality and region, where the council decides each autumn what the coming year is to cost.

Where does the power lie?1

  • Municipality · the municipality's own budget · approx 25 %
  • Region · the region's own budget · approx 10 %
  • State · central budget & state grants · approx 60 %
  • EU · fee & budget framework · approx 5 %

The central government budget governs the whole and the frames for every level. The general election shapes most of it, but each council decides its own budget.

How it works: the breakdown

The municipalityThe main decision of the autumn
The regionThe frame for healthcare
Central governmentThe big machine · centre of gravity
Who decides?
The municipal executive board (kommunstyrelse) prepares, the municipal council (kommunfullmäktige) decides.
The regional executive board (regionstyrelse) prepares, the regional council (regionfullmäktige) decides.
The Government proposes, the Riksdag decides. The Ministry of Finance holds the calculations.
What do they decide?
The municipality's entire economy: the tax rate, the committees' frames and investments. The Local Government Act requires orderly finances.
The regional tax and the frames for care and public transport, here too with a requirement of a balanced economy.
All of the state's income and expenditure, divided across 27 expenditure areas, plus the state grants to the municipal sector.
Where are decisions made?
In the council chamber, usually in June or November. The meetings are open.
In the regional council, open meetings and official documents.
The budget bill is submitted in the autumn, the Riksdag decides in two steps before the turn of the year.
Who pays?
Municipal tax, fees, state grants and equalisation.
Regional tax, patient fees, ticket revenue and state grants.
Taxes and fees from across the country.
Fastest way in?
Municipal election Attend the budget council meeting, read the proposals, contact members before the decision.
Regional election The regional election governs the budget's choices between hospitals, health centres and transport.
General election The general election is the budget election. Members from your constituency can be contacted directly.
EUSweden pays a fee into the EU's budget and receives support back, and the EU's shared budget rules affect Swedish fiscal policy. Shaped in the European Parliament election.

Read the table by column to understand one level, or by row to compare the levels. The green level is the area's centre of gravity.

How it works: follow the decision

The case The central government budget comes into being
  1. State

    Spring: the guidelines

    In April the Government submits the spring fiscal policy bill: how the economy is doing and where the policy should go. Agencies and the National Financial Management Authority produce forecasts and underlying data.

  2. State

    Summer: the negotiations

    The ministries negotiate with the Ministry of Finance over their appropriations. Most of the budget is already bound by earlier decisions, the fight is over the margins.

  3. State

    Autumn: the budget bill

    The Government submits its entire proposal to the Riksdag, thousands of pages. The opposition responds with budget motions of its own, and the finance committee prepares the matter.

    Point of influence

    Members of the Riksdag are reached by email and meetings. Those elected in your constituency have particular reason to listen.

  4. State

    Winter: a decision in two steps

    The Riksdag first votes on the whole and the frames, then on each expenditure area separately. The two-step model stops the budget from falling apart in loose partial decisions.

  5. MunicipalityRegion

    The state grants land locally

    Once the state's frames are set, municipalities and regions know what they get, and their councils decide their own budgets with a tax rate and priorities.

    Point of influence

    The municipality's budget council meeting is open to everyone. It is the autumn's most important local meeting.

  6. Your everyday life

    January: new numbers everywhere

    The tax on your payslip, the price of the bus pass and the school's budget for substitute teachers: all of it was adjusted at the turn of the year by decisions made in the autumn.

The journey looks the same in reverse: what has been built came the same way, through the same decisions. Whoever knows where the decisions are made also knows where they can be changed.

Questions to discuss

  1. If you got to steer one percent of the central government budget, what would you invest in?

  2. What do you know about your municipality's budget, and what would make you open it?

  3. What does democracy gain and what does it lose from the budget being voted through as a whole?

  4. How long-term can decisions be in a budget that is redone every year?

  5. Who notices first when a budget is tightened, and whose voice is heard least in the process?

Glossary

Budgetproposition
The Government's combined budget proposal, submitted to the Riksdag every autumn.
Utgiftsområde
One of the 27 compartments the state's expenditure is divided into, from defense to study support.
Rambeslut
The Riksdag's two-step model: first the whole and the frames, then the details.
Balanskrav
The Local Government Act's rule that municipalities and regions may not plan for a deficit.
Statsbidrag
The state's money to municipalities and regions, general or earmarked for a particular purpose.
Vårproposition
The Government's spring statement on the state of the economy and the direction of policy.

Go further

Footnotes

1) This is an estimate of how decision-making power over the issue is split between the municipality, the region, central government and the EU, based on how responsibility is divided in legislation. A teaching guide, not an exact measurement.