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Demokratiskolan
The Nation by night card from MethodKit for Society and Politics
Card 76 of 128 · MethodKit for Society & Politics
  • AreaCulture & everyday life
  • Centre of gravityThe municipality
  • Points of influence4 on the journey
  • Decisive electionThe municipal election
Culture & everyday life

Nation by night

Joys, safety & dangers at night

When the city goes dark, a different set of rules takes over. Who is allowed to serve beer until three in the morning, where the music may play and who keeps order on the street is largely decided in your town hall (kommunhus), with the Police (Polismyndigheten) as the voice of the central government in every case. Nightlife is one of the clearest examples of municipal power in your everyday life.

Where does the power lie?1

  • Municipality · serving permits & inspection · approx 50 %
  • Region · emergency care & night transport · approx 5 %
  • State · alcohol law, police & public order law · approx 40 %
  • EU · import rules & excise duties · approx 5 %

The centre of gravity sits with the municipality, which grants and revokes the serving permits. The municipal election decides the most about what your nightlife looks like.

How it works: the breakdown

The municipalityThe permit issuer · centre of gravity
The regionCare during the night
Central governmentThe law & the police
Who decides?
The municipal council (kommunfullmäktige), the elected assembly of your municipality, and the social welfare committee (socialnämnden), often through a dedicated permit unit.
The regional council (regionfullmäktige) and the health and medical care committee.
The Riksdag (Sweden's parliament), the Government (the cabinet), the Police (Polismyndigheten) and the Public Health Agency (Folkhälsomyndigheten).
What do they decide?
Serving permits, serving hours, inspection of the bars and building permits for the premises.
Emergency departments, ambulances and addiction care that take over when the night goes wrong. Often the night buses too.
The Alcohol Act, the Public Order Act, the police's work on the street and the national guidance for the municipalities' inspection.
Where are decisions made?
In the committee's meetings and at the permit unit. The decisions are official documents.
In the regional council and the care committees.
In the Riksdag and in the daily work of the police in your area.
Who pays?
The inspection is largely paid for by the bar owners' application and inspection fees, the rest through the municipal tax.
The regional tax funds the emergency care and the ambulance service.
The central government budget pays for the police. The alcohol tax goes to the central government.
Fastest way in?
Municipal election Comments and complaints to the permit unit, contact with the committee's politicians.
Regional election The regional election steers the resources of emergency care. Comments through 1177 and the patients' committee.
General election The general election steers the Alcohol Act and the resources of the police. Referral responses when the law is reviewed.
EUThe EU sets minimum levels for the alcohol tax and rules for how much you may bring across the border. 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 bar gets to serve until 03
  1. State

    The Alcohol Act sets the frame

    The Riksdag has decided that serving alcohol requires a permit and that it is the municipality that examines the application. The law's standard time is serving until 01:00, but the municipality can allow a later closing time.

    Point of influence

    The general election steers the Alcohol Act. When the law is reviewed, the proposals go out on open referral.

  2. Municipality

    The bar owner applies to the municipality

    An application for extended serving hours is submitted to the municipality's permit unit. The municipality's guidelines for serving permits, decided by the politicians, state how late the hours that are normally granted may be in different situations.

    Point of influence

    The guidelines are decided politically and reconsidered regularly. The municipal election and comments to the committee shape them.

  3. StateMunicipality

    The police and the neighbours are heard

    The municipality sends the case out on referral to the police, who assess the risk of public order disturbances, and often to the environmental administration, which assesses noise. People living nearby can submit comments.

    Point of influence

    Do you live close by? Your comments about noise and order become part of the basis for the decision.

  4. Municipality

    The committee decides, often with conditions

    The social welfare committee or the permit committee makes the decision. A permit until 03:00 is often combined with conditions after the police's statement, for example security guards (ordningsvakter) after a certain time. If the bar owner is refused or has the permit revoked, the decision can be appealed by the applicant or the permit holder to the administrative court (förvaltningsrätten), and further to the administrative court of appeal. If the bar owner is refused or has the permit revoked, the decision can be appealed by the applicant or the permit holder to the administrative court (förvaltningsrätten), and further to the administrative court of appeal.

  5. Municipality

    The inspection decides whether the permit is kept

    The municipality's inspectors and the police carry out inspection visits, sometimes in the middle of the night. Over-serving or trouble can lead to a warning or a revoked permit. The County Administrative Board (Länsstyrelsen) in turn reviews the municipality's inspection.

    Point of influence

    Are you disturbed by a bar? Report it to the municipality's permit unit. Complaints often lead to an inspection visit.

  6. Your everyday life

    02:30 on a Saturday

    The dance floor is full and the guards are at the door. The closing time, the guards and the noise level towards the street are the result of municipal decisions that you can influence.

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. How late should the bars in your municipality be allowed to serve, and who should get to decide it?

  2. Nightlife creates both jobs and disturbances. How would you weigh the interests of the bar owner, the guests and the neighbours against each other?

  3. What makes the night safe where you live: more police, more security guards, more lighting or something else entirely?

  4. Who is responsible when someone is hurt on the way home from a bar?

  5. How does nightlife differ between city and countryside, and what does that mean for where people want to live?

Glossary

Serveringstillstånd
The municipality's permit, required in order to serve alcohol for payment.
Remiss
When a public agency asks others for their views before a decision, here the police's statement on a bar's application.
Ordningslagen
A national law on order and safety in public places, the basis for many of the conditions the police set.
Tillsyn
Public agencies checking that the rules are followed, at the bar through visits by the municipality and the police.
Ordningsvakt
A person appointed by the police to keep order, a common condition for late serving hours.

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.