Venice Commission - Report on Bicameralism

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Sweden

1.Has the country ever had a bicameral parliamentary (or congressional) system in the past? If so, in which period? Why was it decided to change into a unicameral system? Is there a public debate about changing to a bicameral system? What are the terms of the debate?

The Swedish parliament, or Riksdag, originally consisted of the four social estates: the nobility, the clergy, the burghers (property-owning commoners in the towns such as merchants etc.), and the yeomanry (freehold farmers). This form of Ständestaat representation lasted until 22 June 1866, when the Riksdag decided to reconstitute itself as a bicameral legislature, consisting of Första kammaren or the First Chamber, with 155 members and Andra kammaren or the Second Chamber with 233 members. The First Chamber was indirectly elected by county and city councillors, while the Second Chamber was directly elected.
This bicameral system lasted until 1969, when a partial reform of the constitution was passed, creating a unicameral legislature. The origins of the unicameral legislature are that, prior to the 1964 election, the non-socialist parties had agreed to recommend a single-chamber Parliament. The dominant party at the time, the Social Democratic Party (SDP) was originally not in favour of this, as it traditionally had strong representation at the local level (and thus a significant proportion in the indirectly elected first chamber). However, the SDP suffered major losses in the local elections of 1966 and could no longer reckon with a majority in the first chamber. The SDP thus became converted to the idea of a single chamber.

2.What is the population of the country? What is its size?

The current population of Sweden in 2023 is 10,612,086. The land has a total area of 447,430 km² (172,754 mi²) and a total coastline of 3,218 km (1,999.6 mi).

3.What form of state and form of government has the country? Please provide details with reference to relevant constitutional provisions. a) Unitarian or federal/regional/other form of decentralization; b) Parliamentary, presidential, semi-presidential or mixed

The issue of the unicameral legislature was intimately connected with what type of electoral system to apply. Even here, views between the political parties began converging in the 1960’s. The SDP had, during its long period of almost total political dominance, been strongly in favour of a first past the post system. Other parties were in favour of a proportional electoral system. Demographic changes meant that the SDP also was gradually won around to the idea of a proportional system. A parliamentary commission of inquiry eventually recommended a highly proportional system for national elections. This would adjust the number of MPs each party would receive to the overall national votes, assuming the party in question reached a voting threshold of 4% of the votes throughout the country. The SDP wished to maintain the link between local and national elections, and so the compromise also included a common election day for parliamentary and local government elections. A three-year electoral period was also introduced. This partial reform of the Constitution was approved by the Riksdag in 1969. Elections to the new unicameral Parliament with 350 members18 took place in the autumn of 1970 and it met for the first time in January 1971. The number of seats in the Riksdag was reduced to 349, from 1976 onwards.
Since then, there has been no serious debate to re-introduce bicameralism or to change. The parliamentary mandate period was increased to four years during the 1990’s, following the recommendations of another commission of inquiry. In 2011, local authority autonomy, which in practice is quite strong in Sweden, was formally written into the constitution. There are 290 local authorities in Sweden and twenty regional authorities, with responsibility for transport and health care. Elections to both the local authorities and regions have been coordinated with parliamentary elections since 1970.

4.How many members are in the lower house?

349.