Local public administration as facilitator of political youth participation – good intentions and institutional shortcomings

ABSTRACT

This article examines a model for facilitating youth participation in local politics in Sweden. The Swedish youth councils are the responsibility of local authorities and they are designed to encourage political and civic interests among young people. These councils administrated by local bureaucracies are analyzed using institutional logics theory to determine the intentions, organization and outcomes of youth participation. The conclusions show that the institutional logic of the local public administration tends to dominate over the democratic logic of political participation for the young. The findings are based on mainly qualitative data from a two-year research project in Sweden.

KEYWORDS:

• Youth council
• institutional logics
• youth participation
• public administration
• youth sociology

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank research assistant Carina Mellberg for her invaluable work with the data collection

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Anders Kassman is Associated Professor of Sociology at the Centre for Civil Society Research, Ersta Sköndal Bräcke University College in Stockholm. He has mainly published books and articles on civil society, youth issues and social policy.

Johan Vamstad is Associated Professor of Political Science at the Centre for Civil Society Research, Ersta Sköndal Bräcke University College in Stockholm. He has mainly published books and articles on civil society and philanthropy, social policy and the welfare state.

ORCID

Anders Kassman http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6158-3279

Additional information

Funding

This research was made possible by a research grant from The Swedish Agency for Youth and Civil Society.