ALPHA. Demokratiskolan.se is a PROTOTYPE · Content review in progress
Demokratiskolan
The Narratives card from MethodKit for Society and Politics
Card 8 of 128 · MethodKit for Society & Politics
  • AreaDemocracy & power
  • Centre of gravityCentral government
  • Points of influence3 on the journey
  • Decisive electionThe general election
Democracy & power

Narratives

Tales of the nation, cities, neighborhoods & people

Midsummer, the welfare-state ideal, the image of the equal country: nations are held together by stories as much as by laws. No agency owns the story of Sweden, and that is how it should be in a democracy. But the public sphere shapes the conditions: cultural policy, archives, school and support distributed at arm's length.

Where does the power lie?1

  • Municipality · libraries, culture school & places · approx 30 %
  • Region · museums & culture cooperation · approx 20 %
  • State · cultural policy, archives & school · approx 45 %
  • EU · culture programmes · approx 5 %

No one steers the stories, but the central government sets the frame and the money for cultural policy. The principle of arm's length is meant to keep politics away from the content.

How it works: the breakdown

The municipalityThe places of storytelling
The regionThe county's memory
Central governmentA frame at arm's length · centre of gravity
Who decides?
The municipal council (kommunfullmäktige) and the culture committee. Every municipality must by the Library Act have a public library.
The regional council (regionfullmäktige) and the culture committee, county museums and county theatres.
The Riksdag, the Swedish Arts Council (Kulturrådet), Isof and the Swedish National Heritage Board (Riksantikvarieämbetet). The Swedish National Agency for Education (Skolverket) shapes the curricula.
What do they decide?
Libraries, the culture school, local heritage centres and venues where stories are created and shared.
Regional culture is distributed through the culture cooperation model: museums, performing arts and music in the county.
The goals and money of cultural policy, the archives for language and folklore, the Historic Environment Act and the teaching of history.
Where are decisions made?
In the culture committee's budget and in the council.
In the region's culture plan, drawn up in dialogue with the cultural sector.
In the Riksdag and in the agencies' grant decisions, at arm's length from the content.
Who pays?
Municipal tax: libraries, the culture school and association support.
Regional tax plus state funds through the cooperation model.
The central government budget: culture support, archives, public service and school.
Fastest way in?
Municipal election Use the library, get involved in a local heritage association, comment on the culture budget.
Regional election Comment on the culture plan, visit and support the county's institutions.
General election Vote on cultural policy, contribute your own stories to the archives.
EUThe EU supports culture through programmes such as Creative Europe, but cultural policy is fundamentally 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 house becomes a listed building and the story is preserved
  1. Municipality

    The local heritage association sees the value

    The old station building is to be sold, and the local heritage association knows what it has meant to the place. The members gather photographs, documents and stories from those who remember.

    Point of influence

    The local heritage movement is open to all. Gathering and writing down local stories is a piece of democratic work in itself.

  2. State

    Anyone can raise the question

    The association submits an application for a building heritage designation to the County Administrative Board (Länsstyrelsen). That possibility is open to everyone, no special standing is required.

    Point of influence

    Raising the question of a building heritage designation with the County Administrative Board is open to anyone and costs nothing.

  3. State

    The County Administrative Board investigates

    The County Administrative Board examines under the Historic Environment Act whether the house has a particularly high cultural-historical value, with guidance from the National Heritage Board. The owner and the municipality get to comment. The decision can be appealed to the administrative court (förvaltningsrätt), mainly by the owner whose house the protection restricts.

  4. Municipality

    The municipality protects the environment

    In parallel, the municipality can protect the house and the environment around it in the detailed development plan (detaljplan). Plans always go out for consultation (samråd) before a decision.

    Point of influence

    Detailed development plan consultations are open to all. This is where it is decided how much of the environment around the house is preserved.

  5. Region

    The county's institutions tell the story

    The county museum documents and exhibits, with money from the culture cooperation model. Isof's archive can receive the folklore the association has gathered.

  6. Your everyday life

    The station building still stands

    The house becomes a listed building, a café and a meeting hall. The story of the place got somewhere to live, and the next generation inherits it.

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 story about Sweden did you grow up with, and does it still hold?

  2. Who gets to be part of the story of your place, and who is missing?

  3. What should be preserved when not everything can be preserved, and who should choose?

  4. How much should politics be allowed to steer the culture it pays for?

  5. Which place in your municipality carries a story that ought to be written down before it disappears?

Glossary

Armlängds avstånd
The principle that politics sets the frame and the money but does not steer the content of culture.
Kultursamverkansmodellen
The system where the central government and the regions jointly fund the county's cultural institutions.
Byggnadsminne
A building with such high cultural-historical value that the County Administrative Board has given it legal protection.
Folkminnen
Stories, customs and expressions that are gathered and preserved, among other places in Isof's archive.
Detaljplan
The municipality's legally binding plan for how land and buildings may be used in an area.

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.