The System of Government and Administration in Sweden and United Arab Emirate: A Comparative Study

The need to make study of public administration scientific, motivated scholars to embark on a meticulous cross-national and cross-cultural study of different systems of administration across the world with the aim of exploring the best practices and developing a universal theory of public administration. In line with the above, this study sought to compare systems of government and administration in Sweden and UAE that are both constitutional monarchies. The study used structural functional theory that examines the structure and functions of administrative systems of the two countries. The study explored their similarities and differences using secondary sources of data. Comparative analysis was used in the data analysis. It was found that both countries have dual executive i.e. president and prime minister, even though they operate different systems of government. While Sweden operates parliamentary system, UAE has presidential system of government. Both countries have unicameral legislature. While in Sweden the power to make laws is vested in the parliament, in UAE the legislative body has no constitutional power to make laws. It was also discovered that in Sweden, there is adherence to principle of separation of power while in UAE there is fusion of power regardless of the fact that Sweden and UAE have parliamentary system of government and presidential system of government respectively. The paper concluded that despite of the fact that both countries have dual executive and unicameral legislature, there are so many differences in the ways and manner their institutions operate.