APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R000200090019-6
locality, and the designated number of Riksdag seats apportioned to the voting district are listed on the appropriate ballots. The voter marks only his party's ballots and checks the candidates in order of preference. Voters may cross out names of candidates of whom they disapprove and, if they desire, may write in the names of candidates of their choice. Otherwise the voter simply selects the candidates in his order of preference. The ballots, marked in secret, are put in envelopes and dropped in boxes marked Riksdag, provincial council, and local council.
The 350 members of the Riksdag represent the 28 electoral districts. The number of representatives elected from each district is based on population and is subject to reapportionment every 3 years. Sparsely populated Gotland sends only two representatives to the Riksdag, while Stockholm city has 36. Proportional representation is a fundamental aspect of Swedish politics, and although it may appear complex and cumbersome compared to the simple win-lose system in the United States, it assures that all parties of any significant size will be represented in the government. The formula for auditing the results is called the weighted-odd number method. The total votes polled by each party in a particular district are divided by 1.4, which has the effect of preventing the rise of very small parties. The party with the highest number of votes gets the first seat, and its total is divided by three. The second seat is awarded to the party with the next highest number of votes, and then its total is divided by three. As the system progresses, the diminishing totals of successful parties are divided by five, then seven, then nine, and so on, until all the apportioned seats are filled. Only 310 of the Riksdag seats are awarded in this manner.
The 40 remaining seats are called compensatory seats and are allotted by determining the number of seats each party would have won if the entire country had been considered as a single constituency. Applying the weighted odd-number method to these national totals, it is determined that the more popular parties would, nonetheless, have received more seats and, to compensate for their losses under the constituency tabulation, each party is awarded an appropriate share of the 40 seats.
In order to prevent the proliferation of small parties which might detract from the effectiveness of the major parties, a barrier of 4% of the national vote or 12% of a district vote must be realized in order for a party of receive any seats. The cut-off point is controversial, however, because a party that receives 4% of the national vote automatically qualifies for 14 seats in the Riksdag, while one that receives 3.9% gets no seats.
The extent to which the Swedish population participates in elections compares favorably with voter turnout in other Western European democracies. Among the Scandinavian countries participation is about the same as in Denmark and Norway, but less than in Iceland. A record was set in the 1968 national elections, when 4,862,000 voters, out of an electorate of 5,445,000, or 89.3%, cast ballots. By lowering the voting age to 20 for the 1970 elections, new voters obtaining eligibility in 1970 increased the electorate to 5,643,000, but only 4,976,000, or 88.2%, participated. Current legislation before the Riksdag would lower the voting age to 18, a measure which is expected to result in increased votes for the Social Democrats.
D. National policies (C)
Swedish political life during the past four decades has been characterized by a relatively wide measure of agreement among the non-Communist parties on basic domestic and foreign policy questions. The traditional policy of armed neutrality and non alliance as it has evolved during the past century and a half remains the cornerstone of foreign policy and commands the support of the Socialist and the non-Socialist parties, except for a minority among the Moderates and Liberals. On domestic issues fundamental disagreements among the parties remain, but they concern not so much the goals as the pace and scope of social and economic programs which have been developed by a succession of governments dominated by the Social Democrats.
1. Domestic
Probably the dominant characteristic of Swedish political life especially with regard to domestic policy, has been the tendency toward compromise and the effort to develop a broad consensus among the political parties. This has been particularly true of social and economic development during the past several decades and represents a melding of long-held Socialist views with the more liberal ideas held by some of the bourgeois parties. Swedish governments during this period have placed highest priority on maintaining full employment, sustained economic growth, price stability, and the achievement of self-sufficiency adequate in the event of war. The setbacks suffered by the Social Democrats in recent elections, however, reveal widespread voter dissatisfaction with the growing inflation and ever-higher taxes, thus necessitating some reordering of the priorities in the domestic program. Unemployment, while not a
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APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R000200090019-6
