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III. CONSTITUTION AND ADMINISTRATION.
present day, however, apart from those offices that have judicial
functions, only a few offices work as boards in the strict sense of the term: all
those of recent date are arranged according to the bureau-system (i. e., the
head of the board has the determinative authority), and this system
has-been partially applied to some of the boards of older standing in the process
of reorganization. — All central boards have, as a rule, the epithet
"Royal" prefixed to their names.
Another feature peculiar to Sweden is the circumstance that, side by
side-with these different Boards affiliated to the Government, there are certain
offices and officials that are solely subject to the Riksdag and cannot therefore
receive orders from the Government. This has long been the case with the
Bank of Sweden (riksbanken) — whose President, however, the Government
has had the right to appoint since 181)8 «<™ and the National Debt Board
(riksgäldskontoret). Here too, belongs the Solicitor-General of the Riksdag
(justitieombudsmannen), whose position has been described above (under
Constitution). As has been stated above the Riksdag also appoints Auditors
(revisorer) every year to revise the public accounts.
The Local Government of Sweden, as has been already mentionedT
received what is, in the main, its present organization iu 1634, when the
Kingdom was divided into counties (län), each having a Governor
(landshövding) — in Stockholm överståthållare or High Governor — as thi>
King’s representative and therefore as its administrative head. The
Governor is assisted by a Chief County Clerk (landssekreterare) and a Chief
County Accountant (landskamrer are): of these the latter, as head of
the-County Accountant’s Office, deals with fiscal and taxative matters, while
the former attends to all other matters as head of the County Clerk’s Office.
In the absence of the Governor, these two officials exercise his functions
jointly, the right of decision resting with the one under whose department
the case in question falls. — The number of the läns (including the City of
Stockholm) is 25.
In the administration of the läns a strict difference is made between
town and country. In the towns (with the exception of Stockholm, which
forms a län of itself) the highest authority under the Governor is the
Magistracy, consisting of the Mayor — in Gothenburg, two Mayors —
and .Aldermen. The latter are elected by the townspeople: as are also the
Mayors, though in their case the Government appoints to the post one of
the three candidates at the top of the lists as elected by the town.1 The
Magistracy also forms a lawcourt of first instance. The towns of
Öregrund and Östhammar have one Mayor in common. Borgholm, Haparanda,
and the seven last places that were raised to the rank of a town are subject,
in judicial matters, to the provincial courts.
The rural districts in each län are subdivided for administrative purposes
into a number Bailiwicks (fögderier) with a Bailiff (kronofogde) at the
1 It must be remembered that a Mayor in Sweden is a professional lawyer and retains
his (salaried) post for life or until pensioned off.
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