Abstract
This article studies the District Committee system in Sweden, one of intra-municipal decentralization systems, and tries to find lessons for the ongoing Japanese local government reform. City of Stockholm was taken as an example, and the background, characteristics, and actual operation of the system were analyzed. From the study, it turned out that the District Committee system was introduced in order to increase political activities at the district level after the municipal reform in 1950-70s, that reduced the number of municipali-ties from about 2,500 to 287. It also became clear that District Committees in Stockholm has an important role in planning process, by enhancing communication between district residents and the city, although they have officially been given little power.
