TY - CHAP A1 - Brinde, Erik A1 - Hustedt, Thurid A1 - Houlberg Salomonsen, Heidi ED - Kolltveit, Kristoffer ED - Shaw, Richard T1 - The Swedish Executive: Centralising from Afar T2 - Core Executives in a Comparative Perspective. Governing in Complex Times N2 - With its constitutional separation of power between the executive and administration, over the years Sweden has frequently been held up as a shining example of modern state governance. However, recent decades of internationalising politics, EU membership and growing public-sector complexities have placed greater demands on the Swedish executive. In recent years, the established governance system has changed in several respects. First, the previously highly decentralised system has become more centralised and central-local relations remain tense. Second, at the central level, the government has sought to increase control through politicisation. Third, Swedish pandemic policy highlighted the promises and pitfalls of ‘Swedish dualism’. And fourth, government communication has become ever more mediatised. In consequence, the chapter concludes that what from the outside looks like an exemplar of meritocratic democracy is rather a tactically flexible realpolitik built on interpretive ambiguities in the constitution—providing the Swedish executive with much-needed responsiveness in times of significant change, but also the veil for greater centralisation and control from afar. Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-94503-9_9 SP - 211 EP - 233 PB - Palgrave Macmillan CY - Cham ER -