The purpose of this essay (C-uppsats) is to study the role of being a municipal, local elected official. The essay is built around two independent case studies. The first case study concentrate on Säffle kommun (Säffle municipality) and the second on Eda kommun (Eda municipality). Through using the principal-agent theory tries to understand how the local elected officials themselves understand their role as representatives and decision-makers. The essay does this by asking the main question which is who the elected official see as their principal.Through the two case studies the result shows that the elected officials in both studies do not limit the principal to only one. Instead the result and analyze demonstrates how both the electorate and the political parties function as principals. The electorate function as a long term principal while the different political parties function as a more frequent principal which the elected official have a more frequent contact with.To better understand the principal agent theory more studies is necessary. This can be done through both qualitative and quantitative studies.