The role of Swedish local government in the local economy

Local authorities in Sweden have long been active in carrying out measures to assist the local economy. However, it is suggested that the area of industrial and labour market policy is a 'grey-zone' in which local government lacks a clearly defined role. The national government has exhibited a rather ambivalent attitude, both negating and reinforcing the growing local authority involvement in this field. On one hand, national government has, formally, the prerogative in industrial and employment policy and it is loath to extend local government powers, arguing, for example, that its activities may conflict with national goals. On the other hand, whilst the state needs to regulate economic life, it can only do so at a very general coordination and planning level. Thus it needs someone to mediate its policies, adapting and coordinating them to meet varying local needs. In the case of many of the state's regional political measures, local government has fulfilled this mediating role. At the same time as its role as a mediator of national state labour market policies has grown, local government has also had to deal with the local manifestations of the national economic crisis. As a democratically elected body in its own right, charged with a responsibility for the well-being of its area, it has, in the eyes of its electorate, a responsibility to take action to combat local problems such as rising unemployment. Despite the absence of a clearly articulated role, Swedish local authorities, nevertheless, possess the potential to carry out measures to assist the local economy. They have powers available to them under their general authority which permits them to take care of 'their own affairs'. They have the right to raise local income tax, which forms a significant proportion of their income (59 per cent in 1987), and are relatively independent of national government grants (these accounted for 22 per cent of their income in 1987

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  Ingemar Elander, Stig Montin•Policy & Politics•1990

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• Swedish Local Government

  Open Access•Annika Baude•American Political Science Review•1956

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