Culture

The objectives of Sweden´s national cultural policy are:

• to safeguard freedom of expression and create genuine opportunities for everyone to make use of that freedom;
• to take action to enable everyone to participate in cultural life, to experience culture and to engage in creative activities of their own;
• to promote cultural diversity, artistic renewal and quality, thereby counteracting the negative effects of commercialism;
• to enable culture to act as a dynamic, challenging and independent force in society;
• to preserve and make use of the cultural heritage;
• to promote cultural education; and
• to promote international cultural exchange and meetings between different cultures in Sweden.

Shared responsibility for culture

Responsibility for public support to the cultural sector is shared between the State and local government, i.e. the county councils and municipalities.

Parliament decides, following proposals from the Government, on matters like policy objectives and appropriations for various purposes.

The Government presents Bills to Parliament on various matters, including the state budget and legislative changes, and it also appoints inquiries. The Government sets the objectives for agencies and commissions them to carry our various tasks. The annual appropriation directions instruct agencies on the financial frames and rules for budget appropriations. The agencies allocate finance to various cultural activities.

The county councils are responsible for regional activities. These include both subsidies to regional cultural institutions - county theatres, county music institutions, county museums and county libraries - and subsidies to popular movements and non-governmental organisations.

The county administrative boards are responsible for cultural environment work at regional level in collaboration with the county museums.

The municipalities work on services at local level - libraries and music schools, as well as subsidies to activities like local orchestras, theatre groups, municipal museums and local cultural environment work.