Electoral Political Participation at the Core of Democracy: A Human Rights-Based Study of the Swedish Electoral System

Sammanfattning: In this thesis, I investigate how the democratic form of government is maintained and protected in the Swedish legal system, as well as what kinds of risks the legal system poses to the maintenance of democracy in Sweden. Recent reports from NGOs show that the world, and Europe, are going through a trend of democratic backsliding. Thus, it is timely to evaluate what risks the Swedish system might face, from a legal point of view. The study is based on a human rights perspective, where my definition of democracy is based on international human rights law, in particular the right to political participation of Art. 21 of the UDHR and Art. 3 of Protocol No. 1 of the ECHR. Through these sources, I build a democratic framework that identifies the basic requirements for a democratic state. This approach is based on an understanding of democracy as political participation, in particular electoral political participation in relation to parliamentary elections. This framework consists of five requirements for the realization of electoral political participation as a cornerstone of the democratic state, those are: (1) a legislative power that derives its authority from the will of the citizens, (2) that this will is expressed through contested elections, (3) that the citizens have the right to vote and may stand for election, (4) these elections must meet conditions of universal and equal suffrage, periodicity, free and secret elections, and that (5) limitations from these requirements must be justified, are proportionate and prescribed by law. This framework is used as the backbone for the study of the Swedish system of electoral political participation, especially its regulation in the Constitution, as in the Instrument of Government. The study finds that although the regulation is extensive and that the requirements are mainly met, the system is vulnerable due to the relatively simple procedure to amend the Constitution. Furthermore, many of the provisions of practical nature are governed by the Elections Act, an ordinary law. In this sense, a fairly weak political majority would be able to amend laws in a way that could put democracy at risk. Therefore, the democratic form of government needs stronger legal protection, at least through an amended procedure of changing the Constitution.