Youth and influence a discussion of how young people view their possibilities of exercising power and influence in Swedish society

The purpose of this master's thesis is to discuss how young people view their possibilities of exercising power and influence in Swedish society and politics. To accomplish this we have used several different sorts of relevant material. As an introduction, we review the development of the Swedish research concerning youths, with focus on the development in the last two decades of the twentieth century. We continue with a study of important Swedish youth-political documents, especially of the Government Bill På ungdomars villkor: Ungdomspolitik för demokrati, rättvisa och framtidstro On the terms of the youth: Youth-policy promoting democracy, justice and hopes for the future. The Bill is the foundation of a new youth-policy in Sweden. Following this is a section where we discuss a few central issues, for instance "democracy" and "power", since they are central to our research. The most important part of this master's thesis is however the empirical research, a questionnaire distributed among young people in the ages of 15-25. The research was conducted in the cities of Borås, Gothenburg and Stockholm during the autumn of 1999 and the spring of 2000. This group of youths is heterogeneous and the questionnaire not extensive enough for us to be able to draw any general conclusions. The objective is however to be able to discuss how young people view their chances of exercising power and influence. After an analysis of our results, we reach the conclusion that the young people are interested in politics but that they don't see their possibilities of exercising influence as great. The objectives of the new youth-policy are positive, but we think that the political system must change, if everyone is to feel as a part of the society.Uppsatsnivå: