Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - First part - III. Constitution and Administration - 1. Constitution - Historical Account and present Constitution, by E. Hildebrand, Ph. D., Chief of the National Record Office, Stockholm - The Composition of the Riksdag and its method of working, by J. P. Velander, Ph. C., Stockholm
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THE COMPOSITION OF THE RIKSDAG AND ITS METHOD OF WORKING. 179
nämnden), whether or no the members of that Court are deserving to be kept in
their offices. The committee does not institute any investigation, is not indeed at
liberty to enter upon any discussion: its only function is to express its opinion by
a vote. Any member of the High Court of Justice who is removed by this process,
is entitled to a pension amounting to half the salary he was before in receipt
of. No one was ever deposed in that manner, though. The Riksdag has yet
another form of control over the High Court of Justice in the fact that the
Justitieombudsman (see above) may charge a member of the Court before the Court
of Impeachment (see above) for flagrant misdemeanour as a judge.
The Swedish constitution is the only one in Europe, with the
exception of that of England, which has without greater interruptions been
evolved by a process of independent political growth on a national
foundation. This is sufficient to explain its many peculiar features, of which
the most conspicuous have been roughly sketched above. The
constitution that Sweden possesses affords as a whole a faithful picture of the
conceptions of justice that prevail in the minds of its people, whose
maturity in political matters is thereby fully evidenced.
The composition of the Biksdag and its method of working.
In accordance with the new Organic Law of 1866, the Riksdag
shall consist of two chambers, which »in all questions have equal
competence and authority». Since, however, financial questions are decided by
the common revoting of both chambers, in case they have separately come
to a different decision, the Second Chamber has, on account of its
numerousness exceeding that of the other chamber by more than a half,
a somewhat greater influence than the First Chamber in this respect,
which corresponds to the state of things not uncommon in other
countries, namely that the Second Chamber possesses rights of preference
in regard to budget questions. The manner, in which each chamber
is constituted, is as follows.
The First Chamber consists of 150 members, who are elected for
a term of nine years by the County Councils (Landsting) of the
respective lftns, as well as by the Town Councils of the five towns of
Stockholm, Gothenburg, Malmö, Norrköping, and Gefle, which are not
represented in the County Councils. The memberships of the First
Chamber are distributed between the different constituencies in
proportion to their population, which distribution is regulated every tenth year.
The accompanying regulations in regard to the number of members were
established in 1894. According to the Law of 1866, the number was fixed
at one for every full thirty thousand of the population of the constituency.
The whole number amounted, on this basis, to 125 in 1867 and to 148 in 1894.
The provincial and municipal representative bodies, which elect the
members of the First Chamber, are, in their turn, constituted by public
election, but with a certain census for the elective franchise, and with
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