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STATE ADMINISTRATION.
213
much of its consequence. While the functions of the Council as regards
judicial powers were now entrusted to a newly established High Court of
Justice, its administrative functions were for the most part transferred to a
number of higher state officials, including the Secretaries of State (Konseljen).
Both under the Caroline absolutism (1682—1718) and during the periods
subsequent thereto until the year 1809, select commissions for special branches
of the administration were appointed, whereby business was drawn away from
those boards to the purview of which it really belonged. During the "Period
of Liberty", the Estates also encroached in a variety of other ways on the
administrative domain — for instance, by examining in detail the measures
adopted by the boards and by interfering in the appointment of civil servants.
The Revolution of 1809, which gave Sweden the Constitution still in
force, brought with it no changes of any importance in the administrative
machinery. The Council, it is true, was not revived, but its place in the
administration was taken by a Ministry or Cabinet (statsrådI,1 consisting
of nine members, the majority of whom did not represent any special branch
of the administration. Business was not prepared b3T them, but, as a rule,
by the four Secretaries of State, who brought matters before the Cabinet,
but who had a seat and a vote there only when matters belonging to the
branch they represented were being discussed. In 18-10 this state of things
was altered by the institution of the departmental system: that is to say,
the ministers became heads of Departments of State (departement) in which
Government business was prepared.
After that date the Cabinet consisted of ten members until 1900, when
an eleventh ministerial office was created. Of these eleven members, eight
are heads of departments: the three remaining members, usually termed
Consultative Ministers, take part in the discussions and decisions of
the Cabinet, discharge the duties of tlieir fellow-ministers in case of their
temporary absence, and assist them also in other ways, more especially in
questions referring to that administrative jurisdiction, for which, since the
creation of the Supreme Administrative Court, the Cabinet has remained
the court of final appeal. Since 1876, when the premiership was introduced,
the Prime Minister (statsminister) has usually held one of these three
consultative ministerships; but often the headship of the ministry has
fre-quentljr been combined with the headship of a department. Of the three
consultative ministers two at least should have previously administered
some civil office.
Government measures are decided upon by the King-in-Cabinet. The
several ministers, on the other hand, cannot decide even minor matters by
themselves.
1 It seems advisable to point out that the term Cabinet as applied to the Swedish
Statsråd has a widely different meaning from those which it bears in English-speaking
countries: unlike the British Cabinet and the Cabinets of the British Dominions, for
instance, the Swedish Cabinet consists of a constitutionally fixed number of members assembled
under the chairmanship, not of the Prime Minister, but of the King or the Regent: unlike
the United States Cabinet, the Swedish Cabinet includes ministers who may be members of
either chamber of the Riksdag and may, whether members or not, personally address
either chamber.
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