Cocreators or recipient : A case study of citizens political influence through participation in citizen dialogues in Växjö municipality

How can citizens in a Swedish municipality become more active and involved in the political life? This is an issue that is constantly being discussed. Some argue that one way to increase the citizen’s political influence as well as participation, is by using so-called “citizen dialogues”. These “citizen dialogues” have become a common feature among Swedish municipalities. During the dialogues, citizens have the possibility to ask questions and make suggestions to politicians and officials from the municipality in, order to increase knowledge and trying to affect political decisions. I find it interesting to examine the consequences of participation in these dialogues. The purpose of this essay is therefore to analyze the degree of political influence that citizens gain through participation in the citizen dialogue “Direktmöte” in Växjö municipality. The analytic instrument of the essay consists of two theories. These are Sherry R. Arnstein’s “A Ladder Of Citizen Participation” and The Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions “Delaktighetstrappa”. Both of these theories consist of models that can be used to classify different forms of participation on a scale ranging from “non-existing” to “very high” participation. Furthermore, this essay is a qualitative case study and the material consists of documents from the municipality of Växjö