Umeå University's logo

This chapter outlines a perspective on policy change in the Nordic countries after the Second World War. It is argued that three distinctive periods can be identified. The first is a tax financed expansion period of social welfare and public services during the first three decades after the war. When tax increases ceased to be functional, a liberalization and globalization phase took over. It was hoped that more competitive businesses would generate a surplus that would be sufficient for retaining the public commitments, including the welfare sector. Markets were dereg-ulated, previous state-owned businesses were sold off and private providers were invited to carry out welfare services. New Public Management became the leading philosophy of how the public sector should be governed. The third phase, a post-global era, emerged around 2020 with increasing awareness of on-going climate change, the Covid-19 pandemic, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and the retreat from an international rules-based world order. Under such conditions, the Nordic countries’ reliance on liberalization of trade became a very risky strategy and was not a safe basis for generating public resources. Also, additional demands for public services emerged. New infrastructure was needed to handle floods, forest fires and droughts. Resources had to be stored for unseen events. The national defence needed to be strengthened, and Finland and Sweden joined the NATO. A new approach had to be considered.

Rapporten syftar till att undersöka varför Sverigedemokraterna lyckats så bra i just Skåne och Blekinge och vad som kännetecknar den regionala politiska kultur som dominerar i detta område. Vid 2022 års val fick man 30 procent av rösterna i detta område, mot drygt 20 procent i Sverige som helhet. Den politiska regionen Skåne-Blekinge (SD) innefattar 25 av de 38 kommunerna i dessa län. Partiet har där gjort inbrytningar i alla samhällsgrupper, men särskilt i dess kärngrupper av män, arbetare, lågutbildade och lågavlönade.

Den kanske viktigaste förklaringen till Sverigedemokraternas framgångar i denna politiska region är att medborgarna redan innan detta parti dök upp hade mer konservativa och nationalistiska åsikter, som motsvarade Sverigedemokraternas. De hade också svag tillit till andra människor och var särskilt missnöjda med det politiska systemet. Detta mönster präglade både arbetarklass och medelklass. Särskilt de socialdemokratiska sympatisörerna hade sådana uppfattningar och lockades snabbt över till det nya partiet. 

Det historiska ursprunget till detta åsikts- och handlingsmönster är höjt i dunkel, men en negativ inställning till invandrare har djupa rötter och är dokumenterat inom både fackföreningsrörelsen och på den skånska landsbygden. Skånsk separatism och närheten till kontinenten har också angivits som skäl. Detta förhållningssätt överförs också alltjämt från generation till generation.

Efter det att Sverige ratificerade Europakonventionen om kommunal självstyrelse (the European Charter of Local Self-Government) 1989, den s.k. självstyrelsekonventionen, har ett antal reformer av det lokala och regionala självstyret ägt rum. Frågan är i vilken utsträckning dessa reformer kan ses som anpassningar till konventionen. Analyser av granskningsrapporter och förarbeten indikerar att reformerna till stor del är inspirerade av konventionen men att några nyckelfunktioner i det svenska rättssystemet, t.ex. bristen på erforderliga rättsmedel, förblir opåverkade trots de i konventionen uppställda kraven.

Samrådsorgan mellan kommuner å ena sidan och pensionärsföreningar och funktionshinderföreningar å andra etablerades redan på 1970-talet och finns idag i nästan alla kommuner.  De är uttryck för ett deltagardemokratiskt ideal. I denna studie undersöks hur ledamöter i dessa organ uppfatar rollen som ledamot, rådens verksamhet och deras inflytande. Omdömena om rådens arbete är genomgående positiva  men bara hälften tycker att råden har något inflytande på den kommunala verksamheten. Särskilt kritiska är de som representerar funktionshinderföreningar. En slutsats är också att denna typ av råd kan fungera även inom andra kommunala verksamhetsområden men en förutsättning är att föreningsrepresentanterna har stöd i väl fungerande organisationer. 

Sweden is the only European country in which local elections are consistently held on the same day as the national and regional elections. This contributes to a comparatively high level of turnout, with around 85% of the electorate participating. A proportional election system, which is uniform independently of municipal size, safeguards fair representation on the local councils of all parties apart from the very smallest. A party label is compulsory for all candidates, and 95% of all seats are captured by the political parties represented in the national parliament. In practice, the parties themselves control the selection of persons to represent them, although the voters have the formal possibility to choose specific candidates. More than 40% of the councilors are women.

Local state-society relations in Sweden are mainly channeled through networks for pensioners and those who are disabled, who are among the most well-organized welfare recipients in Sweden. There are also networks for national minorities and for immigrants, and Local Action Groups that were introduced according to the partnership principles initiated by the EU. Apart from these, formalized networks linking local government and civil society organizations in Sweden are rare, despite a strong tradition of corporatism at the national level, a system of local government with extensive functions and one of the most well-organized civil societies in the world. This seeming paradox reflects the strong position of political parties. Generally, civil society is expected to channel their views through the parties, rather than via separate networks.

Sweden has a two-tier structure of territorial administration. Municipal governments have their roots in a mediaeval parish structure, although non-ecclesial local government was not established until 1862. The county level originates from the seventeenth century. The municipalities have been subject to two amalgamation reforms, aiming at strengthening their ability to carry out welfare functions, which reduced the numbers from 2400 to 290. They have a broad range of welfare tasks but also responsibility for local infrastructure, fire protection and planning. The county level has been more stable, although some amalgamations were carried out in the end of the 1990s, forming the Västra Götaland and the Skåne counties. At the county level, there are both a regional unit of the central government controlling the implementation of national policies and a self-governing unit of local government, originally called county councils. These are mainly responsible for healthcare but have gradually taken on responsibilities for regional development and are now labelled regions. From traditionally having a strong central level and significant municipalities, reforms during recent decades have increased the powers of the regional level of self-government.