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Demokratiskolan
The Norms & taboos card from MethodKit for Society and Politics
Card 79 of 128 · MethodKit for Society & Politics
  • AreaPeople & belonging
  • Centre of gravityCentral government
  • Points of influence2 on the journey
  • Decisive electionRiksdagsvalet
People & belonging

Norms & taboos

Dos & Don'ts of the majority society

Most of what governs your everyday life is written in no law: how close to someone you stand in the queue, what can be joked about, what is eaten for dinner. Norms are governed by no one and shaped by everyone. But sometimes politics moves the line, or runs after it once the norms have already shifted.

Where does the power lie?1

  • Municipality · supervision & local rules · approx 15 %
  • Region · no formal role · approx 5 %
  • State · laws that move lines · approx 75 %
  • EU · rules that change habits · approx 5 %

Public power over norms is small, and should be in a free society. When the public sector does act, it is most often the Riksdag that writes a shift in norms into law.

How it works: the breakdown

The municipalityEveryday supervision
The regionWithout a formal role
Central governmentThe law as a sender of norms · centre of gravity
Who decides?
The municipal council (kommunfullmäktige), the environmental committee and the social welfare committee.
No formal role in matters of norms.
The Riksdag, the Government and agencies such as the Public Health Agency and DO.
What do they decide?
Local public order regulations, supervision of smoking bans and serving permits, the school's work on norms and fundamental values.
No formal role, but healthcare's encounters with patients both reflect and challenge norms, from lifestyle advice to the way people are treated.
Laws that write in or drive shifts in norms: the ban on smacking, the smoking bans, the consent law and the discrimination bans.
Where are decisions made?
In the council's regulations and the committees' supervision decisions.
In healthcare guidelines and training.
In the Riksdag, after inquiries and rounds of referral where opinion is weighed.
Who pays?
The municipal tax and supervision fees.
The regional tax, as part of ordinary healthcare.
The central government budget: supervisory agencies and information efforts.
Fastest way in?
Municipal election Local public order regulations are decided by the council and can be questioned by residents.
Regional election The regional election shapes healthcare, not the norms.
General election The general election shapes when norms become law. Referrals (remiss) are open to everyone.
EUEU rules sometimes change habits along the way, from single-use plastic to working hours. 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 shift in norms becomes law: smoke-free outdoor serving areas
  1. Your everyday life

    The norm moves first

    Over a few decades, smoking goes from a matter of course to an exception. Fewer and fewer smoke, and more and more are bothered by the smoke at the next table. The norm has already moved when politics takes over.

  2. State

    The agencies gather the knowledge

    The Public Health Agency and research show how passive smoking harms and how smoke-free environments affect behaviour. A basis of this kind often makes a shift in norms politically possible.

  3. State

    Inquiry, referral and a Riksdag decision

    The proposal for smoke-free outdoor environments is investigated and goes out for referral to agencies, municipalities and organisations. The Riksdag decides, and since 2019 outdoor serving areas, playgrounds and entrances are smoke-free.

    Point of influence

    The referral (remiss) is open: even private individuals can respond. The general election decides which proposals are put forward at all.

  4. Municipality

    The municipality makes sure it is followed

    The environmental committee supervises the smoking bans and can issue an order to restaurateurs who do not put up signs or say something. The responsibility for the ban being followed lies with whoever is in charge of the place.

    Point of influence

    Anyone who is bothered can report it to the municipality's environmental administration. How supervision is prioritised is local politics.

  5. Your everyday life

    The ashtray disappeared

    A few years later it is hard to remember that people smoked between courses. The law caught up with the norm, and the norm ran on: what was common became unthinkable.

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 norm has shifted the most in your lifetime, and what was it that moved it?

  2. Which of today's taboos do you think will be gone in twenty years, and which new ones have appeared?

  3. When should the state go ahead of opinion with a law, and when should it wait for it?

  4. Which invisible rules must a new resident in Sweden crack on their own, because no one tells them?

  5. Who in your life has the most power over what you perceive as normal?

Glossary

Norm
An unwritten rule about how one should behave, followed without anyone having decided it.
Tabu
Something so charged that it can hardly be spoken about or done without social punishment.
Kodifiera
To write an already established practice or norm into law.
Remiss
The round when agencies, organisations and individuals get to have their say on a proposal.
Lokala ordningsföreskrifter
The municipality's own rules for order in public space, for example about alcohol or dogs.
Tillsyn
An agency's check that rules are followed.

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.