ALPHA. Demokratiskolan.se is a PROTOTYPE · Content review in progress
Demokratiskolan
The Citizen involvement card from MethodKit for Society and Politics
Card 67 of 128 · MethodKit for Society & Politics
  • AreaDemocracy & power
  • Centre of gravityThe municipality
  • Points of influence3 on the journey
  • Decisive electionThe municipal election
Democracy & power

Citizen involvement

Involvement & participation, beyond elections

Democracy is not closed between elections: public consultation (samråd), the citizen's proposal (medborgarförslag), the local referendum initiative (folkinitiativ) and referrals (remiss) are open doors into the decisions. You have most say in the municipality, where the distance to power is shortest. Most of the involvement is free, requires no membership and is used by surprisingly few.

Where does the power lie?1

  • Municipality · proposals, dialogues & consultation · approx 50 %
  • Region · consultation & referendum initiative · approx 20 %
  • State · referrals & legal frame · approx 25 %
  • EU · citizens' initiative · approx 5 %

The municipality is the home ground of involvement: the most channels and the shortest distance. The municipal election also decides how much dialogue the municipality wants to have.

How it works: the breakdown

The municipalityHome ground · centre of gravity
The regionHealthcare's channels
Central governmentThe level of referrals
Who decides?
The municipal council (kommunfullmäktige) and the committees. The Local Government Act governs the forms.
The regional council (regionfullmäktige), the committees and the patients' advisory committee.
The Riksdag, the Government and the agencies.
What do they decide?
A citizen's proposal or an e-proposal in many municipalities, citizen dialogues, consultation on plans and a local referendum initiative.
Consultation and dialogues about healthcare and transport, a referendum initiative at regional level, and advisory councils for pensioners and disability rights.
The referral system: inquiries are sent out openly and anyone may respond. The Local Government Act sets the frame for local involvement.
Where are decisions made?
In the council and committees, with proposals and dialogues often gathered on the municipality's website.
In the region's consultations and councils, and in the regional council.
On the Government's and the agencies' websites, where referrals are published.
Who pays?
Municipal tax: dialogue work and case handling.
Regional tax: dialogue and consultation work.
The central government budget: the inquiry and referral system.
Fastest way in?
Municipal election Submit a proposal, respond to a consultation, start or sign a local referendum initiative.
Regional election Respond to the region's consultations, get involved in an advisory council, contact the patients' advisory committee.
General election Respond to a referral as a private individual, take part in agencies' consultations.
EUThe EU's citizens' initiative lets a million EU citizens put a question on the Commission's table. Also 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 A citizen's proposal goes from idea to decision
  1. Municipality

    You see the problem and check the channel

    The crossing by the school is dangerous, and you discover that your municipality accepts citizen's proposals. Many municipalities do, others have e-proposals where more people can back the idea.

    Point of influence

    Write the proposal: what you want, where and why. Half a page is enough, and the formal requirements are small.

  2. Municipality

    The proposal is registered and prepared

    The proposal is registered, becomes an official document and is sent to the right committee, here the technical committee. A case officer investigates the cost and feasibility.

    Point of influence

    Follow the case in the register and call the case officer. You have the right to know where in the process it is.

  3. State

    The frame is checked

    If the road is a state road it is the Swedish Transport Administration (Trafikverket), not the municipality, that owns the question, and then the proposal is forwarded. The Local Government Act governs how proposals are to be handled and who may decide.

  4. Municipality

    The committee or council decides

    The proposal comes up at a meeting with an official statement and a proposed decision. The meeting is open, and the decision with its reasons becomes public.

    Point of influence

    Attend the meeting and talk to the members beforehand. A proposal with the neighbours' signatures carries more weight.

  5. Municipality

    The decision is carried out

    The technical administration orders the work, and the money is taken from the committee's budget. If it stalls here you can ask why, the documents are still public.

  6. Your everyday life

    The crossing is painted

    A few months later a new light blinks by the school route. It took a piece of paper, two meetings and a bit of persistence: democracy's smallest building block is a proposal that someone actually submits.

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. Which proposal would you submit to your municipality if you knew it would be read?

  2. Why do so few use the channels that exist, and what would change it?

  3. When does dialogue become real, and when is it a box-ticking exercise for decisions already made?

  4. Whose voices are heard in the consultations today, and whose are missing?

  5. How much influence between elections is reasonable before it clashes with the mandate of the elected representatives?

Glossary

Medborgarförslag
The right in many municipalities to put a proposal directly to the municipal council.
E-förslag
A digital variant where proposals are published openly and other residents can back them.
Folkinitiativ
If ten percent of those eligible to vote sign, the question of a referendum can be raised in the council.
Samråd
The formal stage when everyone gets to comment before a decision is made.
Remiss
The open round where agencies, organisations and private individuals get to respond to a proposal.
Medborgardialog
The municipality's or region's organised conversation with residents outside the formal decisions.

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.