National apportionment of MP seats in the Riksdag National apportionment of MP seats in the Riksdag The electoral system in Sweden is proportional. Of the 349 seats in the national diet, the unicameral "Riksdag", 310 are fixed constituency seats () allocated to constituencies in relation to the number of people entitled to vote in each constituency (). The remaining 39 leveling seats () are used to correct the deviations from proportional national distribution that may arise when allocating the fixed constituency seats. There is a constraint in the system that means that only a party that has received at least four per cent of the votes in the
History of the Riksdag reflected the lines of division in Swedish society: the nobility, the clergy, the burghers and the peasantry. Under the Instrument of Government of 1809 the Riksdag shared the powers of government with the King. On the basis of the 1863 electoral reform bill the Estates voted in 1866 to dissolve the Riksdag of the Estates and establish a new Riksdag. The new Riksdag was a political assembly with two chambers where the members were chosen in national elections. The revolution was that citizens could participate and vote in the elections without regard to which Estate they had hitherto belonged; instead