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Demokratiskolan
The Creative sector card from MethodKit for Society and Politics
Card 54 of 128 · MethodKit for Society & Politics
  • AreaCulture & everyday life
  • Centre of gravityCentral government
  • Points of influence2 on the journey
  • Decisive electionThe general election
Culture & everyday life

Creative sector

Movies, fashion, design & creativity

Swedish film, music, fashion and design are both culture and export industry. Politics meets them from two directions: the support of cultural policy and the business promotion of industrial policy. Much of the power sits with the central government, but the regional film funds and the municipality's premises often decide where something actually gets made.

Where does the power lie?1

  • Municipality · premises, stages & local business · approx 20 %
  • Region · film funds & regional development · approx 20 %
  • State · copyright, film support & export · approx 45 %
  • EU · copyright rules & culture programmes · approx 15 %

The central government sets the frames through copyright and the large support systems. The general election weighs heaviest, but the regional election steers the film funds that decide where the productions end up.

How it works: the breakdown

The municipalityThe place & the premises
The regionThe film fund & growth
Central governmentThe frames & the support · centre of gravity
Who decides?
The municipal council (kommunfullmäktige), the culture committee and the business development office.
The regional council (regionfullmäktige), the region's culture committee and the regional film funds and production centres.
The Riksdag, the Government, the Swedish Arts Council (Kulturrådet), the Swedish Film Institute (Svenska Filminstitutet), Vinnova and the Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth (Tillväxtverket).
What do they decide?
Rehearsal spaces, stages, studio support, the municipal school of culture and how smoothly you can get help with shoots and events.
Co-production of film, regional culture funds through the cultural cooperation model and support for the creative industries.
The Copyright Act, film support, export promotion and innovation support for the creative industries.
Where are decisions made?
In the culture committee and in the municipality's budget decisions.
In the region's cultural plan and on the boards of the film funds.
In the Riksdag, in the culture budget and in the agencies' calls for applications.
Who pays?
The municipal tax: premises, the school of culture and event support.
The regional tax plus central government funds that the region distributes onward.
The central government budget: film support, culture support and innovation funds.
Fastest way in?
Municipal election An association's application for premises, contact with the culture committee, citizen's proposals (medborgarförslag) in many municipalities.
Regional election Consultation on the regional cultural plan, dialogue meetings with the culture committee.
General election The general election steers the culture and business budget. Referral responses when copyright is reviewed.
EUThe EU decides the copyright directives and finances the culture programme Creative Europe (Kreativa Europa). The rules behind your streaming service are shaped in Brussels and influenced 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 Swedish feature film gets funded
  1. EU

    Copyright is shaped in Brussels

    The EU's directives govern how filmmakers get paid when the work is shown and distributed further. The Creative Europe programme can also part-finance development and distribution.

  2. State

    The Film Institute distributes the central government film support

    The Riksdag sets aside money in the culture budget and the Swedish Film Institute distributes production support after expert assessment. Without that support, few Swedish feature films get made.

    Point of influence

    The general election steers the size of the culture budget. Film policy proposals go out on open referral.

  3. Region

    A regional film fund steps in as co-producer

    Film funds with regional owners co-produce in return for the shoot being located there. It provides jobs for local film workers and income for the town, and the funds compete for the productions.

    Point of influence

    The regional election steers the funds' owners and budget. The regional cultural plan goes out on consultation.

  4. Municipality

    The municipality opens the city for filming

    Closing off a street requires a permit from the police, but the municipality provides land, premises and sometimes staff. A smooth municipality can decide where the team ends up.

  5. Your everyday life

    Premiere at the cinema in your neighbourhood

    The film you watch on a Friday evening carries public decisions in every line of the credits: EU rules, central government film support, a regional fund and a municipality that lent out its city centre.

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. Are film and music primarily culture or business, and does the answer matter for who should pay?

  2. Which places are there in your municipality where young people can create: rehearsal spaces, studios, workshops? What is missing?

  3. Regional film funds attract shoots with public money. What does a region gain and risk by doing that?

  4. How does the power of the global streaming services affect what gets created in Sweden?

  5. If you got to allocate one million to the creative life where you live, what would you invest in?

Glossary

Upphovsrätt
The creator's legal right to decide over and be paid for their work.
Kultursamverkansmodellen
The system where the central government gives the regions a pot of culture money that they distribute onward according to a regional cultural plan.
Samproduktion
When several financiers, for example a regional film fund, go into a production and share the risk and the income.
Kreativa Europa
The EU's programme for support to culture, film and the creative sectors.
Remiss
When a proposal is sent out so that public agencies, organisations and individuals can give their views before a decision.

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.