Misplaced Pages

Län

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.
(Redirected from Lääni) Administrative divisions used in Sweden and previously in Denmark, Finland and Norway"Laani" redirects here. For the Papuan language, see Western Dani language.
This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.
Find sources: "Län" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (December 2007) (Learn how and when to remove this message)
Län of Sweden

Län (Swedish, IPA: [ˈlɛːn] ), len (Danish, IPA: [leːn]), lääni (Finnish, IPA: [ˈlæːni]) and len (Norwegian, IPA: [leːn]) refer to the administrative divisions used in Sweden and previously in Denmark, Finland and Norway. The provinces of Finland were abolished on January 1, 2010. In Norway, the term was in use from 1308 and in Denmark from the beginning of the 13th century. As of February 19, 1662 the len of Denmark-Norway were converted into amt.

They are also sometimes used in other countries, especially as a translation of the Russian word volost. During the period when Finland was a part of the Russian Empire (1809–1917), when Russian was made an official language alongside Swedish, it was synonymous with the word guberniya.

The term

The word literally means "fief" and is cognate with English loan. The usual English language terms used are separate for the two countries, where Sweden has chosen to translate the term as "county" while Finland prefers "province". With a shared administrative tradition spanning centuries, ending only in 1809, this is a separation by convention, rather than by distinction.

The term matches reasonably well the British term "county", but not so well the American term "county" which is usually much smaller in population, akin to a Swedish "kommun" (and nor does the concept of an American state compare well to län).

The reason why Sweden has chosen to translate the term to "county" is that in Swedish and English, the word "provins"/"province" has come to mean different things. In the Swedish Empire, all lands conquered became provinser (provinces); Swedish law, which granted the common people much more freedom and influence than any other European law at the time, was not extended to them, remaining confined to the landskap (in plural) which made up the Swedish-and-Finnish heartland (roughly corresponding to present-day Sweden and Finland). Examples of such former Swedish provinser are Estonia and Swedish Pomerania. Another reason is that in education, Sweden has preferred British English over American English. "County" is a reasonable British English translation of Län.

Before län were adopted, the historical provinces were defined as either "hertigdöme" (duchy) or "grevskap" (county), which adds further confusion. Later all historical provinces have been given "hertigdöme" (duchy) as honorary title.

The län

In Sweden a län is but an arm of the executive power of the national government, and has no autonomy nor legislative power. The län subdivision does not always match the traditional provinces, which are called landskap (singular and plural) in Swedish (including Swedish-speaking Finland) and maakunnat (singular maakunta) in Finnish. The same situation existed in Finland until län/lääni were abolished in 2010.

Historically the term guberniya (Russian: губе́рния) was used for the län/lääni in the Grand Duchy of Finland as a part of Russia from 1809 to 1917. See Governorates of the Grand Duchy of Finland.

The landsting

Main article: County Councils of Sweden

In every Swedish län (except Gotland) there was a landsting. This was a locally elected assembly, which collected tax and had responsibility for a number of services to the population. The main responsibilities were health care, public transport and culture. As of 2020, the landsting have been replaced by regions.

The landshövding

The governor has the title landshövding (Swedish) (previously maaherra in Finnish). He or she is appointed by the government, and presides over the länsstyrelse (Swedish; previously lääninhallitus in Finnish) – translated as "County Administrative Board". The governor's office is administrative by nature, which is also hinted at by the now obsolete title Konungens befallningshavande – "the King's Deputy" - and traditionally used as an honourable post for politicians to conclude their careers. In Finland, the office of governor was abolished in 2010. However, the office still exists in the autonomous province of Åland. The governor of a Swedish county is appointed to represent the central government, rather than elected by the people.

See also

Notes

  1. "New regional administration model abolishes provinces in 2010". Helsingin Sanomat International Edition. Sanoma Corporation. 31 December 2009. Archived from the original on 3 January 2010. Retrieved 1 January 2010.
  2. "Counties of Norway", Misplaced Pages, 2020-02-20, retrieved 2020-02-21
  3. "Danmarks län", Misplaced Pages (in Swedish), 2024-11-19 {{citation}}: Check |url= value (help)
Designations for types of administrative division
English terms
Common English terms
Area
Borough
CantonHalf-canton
Capital
City
Community
County
Country
Department
District
Division
Indian reserve/reservation
Municipality
Prefecture
Province
Region
State
Territory
Town
Township
Unit
Zone
Other English terms
Current
Historical
Non-English terms or loanwords
Current
Historical
Used by ten or more countries or having derived terms. Historical derivations in italics.
See also
Autonomous administration
Census division
Electoral district
List of administrative divisions by country
Slavic administrative divisions
Categories: