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Demokratiskolan
The Life quality card from MethodKit for Society and Politics
Card 62 of 128 · MethodKit for Society & Politics
  • AreaWelfare & health
  • Centre of gravityCentral government
  • Points of influence3 on the journey
  • Decisive electionThe general election
Welfare & health

Life quality

Achieving & maintaining a good quality of life

Quality of life sounds private but is to a large extent built by public decisions: the security when you fall ill, the care when you grow old, the park, the library and the money that lasts to the end of the month. Welfare is a layered structure where the municipality, the region and the central government each have their own floor, and three different elections steer one part each.

Where does the power lie?1

  • Municipality · care, school & everyday environment · approx 30 %
  • Region · healthcare & public transport · approx 25 %
  • State · social insurance & laws · approx 40 %
  • EU · working conditions & consumer protection · approx 5 %

No level owns welfare alone. The central government steers the insurance and the big money, but most welfare per krona you meet in the municipality.

How it works: the breakdown

The municipalityEveryday welfare
The regionCare & travel
Central governmentThe insurance & the laws · centre of gravity
Who decides?
The municipal council (kommunfullmäktige) and the committees for school, care, culture and leisure.
The regional council (regionfullmäktige) and the healthcare committee.
The Riksdag, the Government, the Social Insurance Agency (Försäkringskassan) and the Pensions Agency (Pensionsmyndigheten).
What do they decide?
School, preschool, elderly care, social services, libraries, parks and leisure: the welfare you meet most often.
Healthcare, dental care for the young and public transport: welfare that needs a larger area than a municipality.
Sickness benefit, parental benefit, child allowance, pension and the laws that govern what municipalities and regions must do.
Where are decisions made?
In the municipal council's budget every autumn. The meetings are open and are often broadcast online.
In the regional council, where the budget and the regional plan are decided.
In the Riksdag, with the budget bill as the year's most important welfare decision.
Who pays?
The municipal tax, the largest tax most of us pay.
The regional tax plus central government grants.
The central government budget: the social insurance and the equalisation between strong and weak municipalities.
Fastest way in?
Municipal election A citizen's proposal (medborgarförslag), budget consultations, community associations, direct contact with politicians.
Regional election Email to regional politicians, the patients' committee, consultations about transport.
General election The general election, referral responses (remiss), contact with members from your county.
EUThe EU sets frames for working conditions, consumer protection and free movement, but the core of welfare is national. 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 tax krona becomes welfare
  1. State

    The Riksdag sets the broad strokes

    The budget bill decides the central government grants to municipalities and regions and the levels of the social insurance. The equalisation system moves money so that even municipalities with weak tax capacity can manage school and care.

    Point of influence

    The general election is welfare's biggest lever. The budget is debated openly in the Riksdag every autumn.

  2. Municipality

    The council sets the tax rate

    The municipal council, the elected members in your municipality, decides each year on the tax rate and budget: how much goes to the school, elderly care, the library and leisure.

    Point of influence

    The municipal election decides who does the prioritising. The budget council meeting is open to anyone who wants to listen.

  3. Region

    The region sets its budget

    The regional council allocates the regional tax, where healthcare takes about nine kronor in every ten. The rest goes among other things to public transport and culture.

    Point of influence

    The regional election is the election many skip, even though it steers the care you get.

  4. Municipality

    The services do the work

    The preschool teacher, the assistant nurse and the librarian turn the budget figures into everyday life. Quality is followed up by the committees and reviewed by state oversight authorities like IVO and the Schools Inspectorate.

  5. Your everyday life

    Monday in the land of welfare

    The child is dropped at preschool, grandma gets help to shower, the bus runs on time and a child allowance lands in the account. Four events, three political levels, the same morning.

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. What does quality of life mean to you, and how much of it depends on public decisions?

  2. If your municipality has to save: what would you protect first, and what would have to give way?

  3. Is it fair that the quality of welfare differs between municipalities, or is that local democracy working?

  4. Which welfare should be run by the central government instead of the municipality, or the other way around?

  5. What in your everyday life would you want a politician to try out for a week?

Glossary

Utjämningssystem
The central government's system that redistributes money between municipalities with different tax capacity and needs.
Budgetproposition
The Government's annual proposal for the central government budget, submitted to the Riksdag every autumn.
Skattesats
How many kronor per hundred earned you pay in municipal and regional tax.
Socialförsäkring
Central government insurance such as sickness benefit, parental benefit and pension, usually through the Social Insurance Agency.
Statsbidrag
Money from the central government to municipalities and regions, sometimes free to use, sometimes earmarked.

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.