Although elected representatives play an imperative role for the functioning of a formal democracy, educational research has so far not given much attention to the education and training offered to this group of people. A democratic dilemma may arise in the design and organisation of this education that relate to local governance and policy processes. This paper investigates introductory education that Swedish municipalities offer to municipal councillors and explore the reasons behind its design. The study draws on a comprehensive set of empirical material, consisting of educational programmes from 261 Swedish municipalities and interviews with municipal representatives. The results suggest three different lines of reasoning, denoted system-oriented, relationship-oriented, and market-oriented lines, behind the design of this education. The importance of these results can be considered in relation to previous findings that a strained relation exist between elected representatives and local administrations in Sweden.