Sweden
In Sweden, a State Secretary (Swedish: Statssekreterare) is a political appointee, second in rank to the Minister (Swedish: Statsråd) in charge of the ministry. Unlike ministers, state secretaries are not members of the cabinet. Typically, there is one State Secretary assigned for each minister in the cabinet, and two for the Prime Minister. For historical reasons, the State Secretary in the Ministry for Foreign Affairs has another title (Swedish: Kabinettssekreterare, in English literally "Cabinet Secretary"). State Secretaries tend to, more often than the Ministers do, hail from a fixed civil servant background or a professional background relevant to the area of responsibility that belongs to their respective ministries.
Read more about this topic: Secretary Of State