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STATE ADMINISTRATION.
211
2. STATE ADMINISTRATION.
The administrative government of Sweden, like its political constitution,
has gone through a historical development that has given it a distinctive
character which is, in many respects, different from that of the states on
the mainland of Europe, and which bears witness to that remarkable
instinct for organization that we have already had occasion to note as a
distinguishing trait of Swedish national character.
A distinctive characteristic of the State administration of Sweden is
that every action on the part of any subordinate public authority can be
appealed against to the nest higher authority, in an exactly defined
ascending scale, and finally to the Government itself. Another characteristic
of the Swedish system of administration is that official documents are held
to be of a public nature, so that anyone may demand a copy thereof and
publish the same. The only notable exceptions are the minutes and acts
of the Cabinet, and minutes of ministerial proceedings and of military
causes and diplomatic documents (which are all kept back until after
the lapse of fifty years), and also plans of mobilization and other
military documents, the publication of which might endanger the security of
the Kingdom.
Before proceeding to describe the present administrative system of
Sweden, it may be well to give a short sketch of its history.
During the Middle Ages, the King was chiefly assisted in the conduct of the
realm by the three great officers of state the Lord High Steward (drotsen),
the Lord High Marshal (marsken), and the Lord High Chancellor (kanslern). The
first-named two originally belonged to the King’s household, while the last was,
as a rule, an ecclesiastic. No definite limits were fixed as to the several
spheres of activity of the Lord High Steward and the Lord Marshal, but,
before long, the former began to be regarded as the chief authority in affairs
of justice and the latter in those of war, while the Lord High Chancellor had
to draw up the King’s letters and charters. These three offices were
practically the only ones then existing for the Kingdom as a whole; and the first
two of them, at any rate, were often in abeyance. They never had any thing in
the nature of an organized department of officials under them.
The King’s authority was represented in the various divisions of the
Kingdom by "Headmen" (hövitsmän) and Bailiffs (fogdar), who often had a fortified
castle as the centre of their districts, and who thence exercised both civil and
military functions. Each of these held his district as a fief from the King on
various conditions. Sometimes, he enjoyed the right to collect the revenues
from the district on the sole understanding that he and his dependants should
serve the Crown when need arose; sometimes, he had to render an account of
his receipts, or again to pay a certain sum for his fief, the soldiers under his
command being at the King’s service. Sometimes, fiefs were held as security
for pecuniary advances made to the Crown. These fiefs, for the possession
of which there were perpetual struggles all through the Middle Ages, were not
hereditary; and, although some feudal terms and usages were introduced into
Sweden owing to intercourse with southern Europe, yet the feudal system itself
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