The organisation of the municipalities is based on the principle of representation. It has previously been impossible to give the citizens more influence through direct democracy, but the information technology gives new possibilities and the choice of democracy model might no longer be obvious. Representation can be interpreted in many ways and there is a need for a more distinct definition of the rule that the municipalities shall be governed according to the principle of representation. It should also be further investigated how the new technology can be used to increase the use of direct democracy. The municipalities ought to work to supplement the representation with direct democracy in the form of active discourse with the citizens. This can be done for example through referendums, consultations or citizen councils. There are already possibilities to increase the civil influence, and the municipalities are therefore responsible to ensure that these possibilities are used.

<p>The organisation of the municipalities is based on the principle of representation. It has previously been impossible to give the citizens more influence through direct democracy, but the information technology gives new possibilities and the choice of democracy model might no longer be obvious. Representation can be interpreted in many ways and there is a need for a more distinct definition of the rule that the municipalities shall be governed according to the principle of representation. It should also be further investigated how the new technology can be used to increase the use of direct democracy. The municipalities ought to work to supplement the representation with direct democracy in the form of active discourse with the citizens. This can be done for example through referendums, consultations or citizen councils. There are already possibilities to increase the civil influence, and the municipalities are therefore responsible to ensure that these possibilities are used.</p>

The aim of this thesis is to examine whether law reforms in the detailed planning process can be an aspect that gets in conflict with the citizens rights to participate in the Swedish planning through dialogue, and how five chosen municipalities are working with citizen participation. To be able to answer the aim of the thesis a literature study and five semi-structured interviews was performed in purpose to get wide-ranging information from municipal officials working with detailed planning handling.   Law changes that aims to make the detailed planning process more efficient has been implemented partly to satisfy the needs of dwellings since the detailed planning process among master builders seems to be slow and inefficient, which to the them means higher costs. The requirement on having a detailed planning program was taken away when the new planning law was adopted year 2011. The planning program was including a moment of citizen dialogue. The case studied municipalities have not been affected in this law change arguing that it’s still possible to bring a program if needed. 1st of January 2015 new procedures were implemented in the planning process in purpose to make the process more efficient, where most of the respondents argue that the process don’t have to be more efficient because of the reform, but that the room for citizen dialogue will probably be smaller. The best way of dialogue among municipalities is to include citizens early in the communication process. Nevertheless there are divided meanings whether how there is enough room for dialogue.

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