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COMPOSITION AND PROCEDURE OF THE RIKSDAG.
201
The First Chamber consists of 150 members, who are elected for
a term of six years by the county councils (Landsting) of the several
counties (Län), as well as by the town councils of the five towns of"
Stockholm, Gothenburg-, Malmö, Norrköping-, and Gävle, which are not
represented in the county councils. The members of the First Chamber
are distributed among the different constituencies in proportion to their
population, which distribution is regulated every tenth year.
According to the Organic Law of 1866, the number was fixed at one for
every full thirty thousand of the population of the constituency. The whole
number, on this basis, amounted to 125 in 1867, and 148 in 1894. In
the-year 1894 the number of members was fixed at 150, who, as the previous
members retired or on the dissolution of the chamber for a new election, were
to be elected for nine years. In 1909, in connection with the introduction of
proportional representation, the period of membership was altered to six years,
and it was determined which county-councils and towns should, each of the
six years, elect their share of the members of the chamber. When a seat falls
vacant, there is summoned for the remaining part of the retiring member’s
period of membership a substitute appointed by the same party (viz. the person
who received the next largest number of votes). The First Chamber is thus
renewed only successively: even if it be dissolved by the Government, which
has so far occurred only once (in 1911), the time for beginning the various
six-year periods is not disturbed.
For eligibility to membership of the First Chamber, the candidate must
be 35 years old, and must own and, for at least three years before the
election, have owned real estate having a rateable value of at least 50 000
kronor, or must pay taxes and, for at least three years, have paid taxes on
an annual income of at least 3 000 kronor. The members of the First
Chamber also now enjoy a salary of 10 kronor a day or 1 200 kr. for an
entire session. — Before the year 1911, when the election law of 1909 came
into force, the corresponding conditions of eligibility were real estate of
80 000 kr. value, annual income of 4 000 kr. As the members of this
chamber did not then enjoy any salary, it was practically necessary that the
member should have a distinctly better pecuniary position than the
minimum qualification for the office — at all events if he were not resident in
the capital. This circumstance caused the more remote läns frequently to
take their representatives for the First Chamber from Stockholm, but, in
that case, preferably such as had been born within the constituency in
question or had for some time had their occupation there.
The constitution of the Second Chamber was based in 1866 on a
thorough-going distinction between country and town. The whole number
of members was fixed in 1894 at 230, of whom 150 were assigned to the
country and 80 to the towns. Through the rise of industrial communities
in the country districts and through the enlargement of the constituencies
in connection with the introduction of proportional representation,
however, this distinction has been substantially limited in its practical effects,,
so that the landed interests now exert less influence than formerly
(compare the final remark pp. 205 foil.).
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