Who is responsible for youth policy implementation? This thesis attempts to deepen our understanding of Swedish and Nordic youth policy. Youth policy is cross-sectoral and includes all the decisions and measures affecting the conditions of young people. National youth policy therefore concerns young people's life situations in a number of different areas, such as work, housing, education, health, leisure and influence. The purpose of the study is to increase the knowledge of youth policy work the last century by understanding the impact of youth research concerning adults' role in youth policy implementation.   A mixed method approach has been applied to the study: interviews, documents and youth theory have been analysed. The results show that youth research had a major impact on the Swedish youth policy. It also shows that the state has an important role in the implementation of youth policies. To create a youth policy that meets the democratic mandate, it is necessary to create a systematic approach and guidelines for municipalities. The study has clearly shown that the state's role in the democratic mandate differ significantly over time and that adults' role in the implementation is of great importance. The study draws attention to the perception of adults over time and how adults are increasingly seen as a barrier to young people's democratic schooling, and on what grounds this opinion rests. It is proposed that views on the democratic mandate will be extended from a municipal focus to the state where youth policy have a broader focus that takes account of national welfare goals based on a policy all municipalities has to be involved in.

<p>This thesis is about the effect of political efficacy on societal participation among youths aged 15 to 29. It takes a starting point in the gloomy view of the decline of political participation among citizens in the western world, especially pointing out youths as a threat to democracy. This is a broad subject to take on so my aim becomes a bit more specific. The aim of the thesis is therefore to investigate if belief in ones own capacity and in the responsiveness of the political system affects the actual participation among youths in Europe, independent of a set of alternative predictors. Moreover the thesis is divided into two sub-investigations, one qualitative and one quantitative. The qualitative part discusses and analyzes the concept of political efficacy in a new and broader way outlining two dimensions of the concept, internal and external political efficacy. Using the modified definition of political efficacy the quantitative part provides an analysis of the effects of internal and external efficacy on societal participation among youths. This analysis is done in three steps. First four theoretical groups are derived from the two dimensions of political efficacy and then these are analysed against a set of control variables and three forms of societal participation, lawful public demonstration, contacting a politician or public official and buying a product for certain political, ethical or environmental reasons (“buycott”). Secondly a set of logistic regressions are performed analysing the effect of each dimension of political efficacy on the three forms of societal participation controlling for six alternative predictors (the control variables). Lastly the effects of each dimension of political efficacy are compared to see if different dimensions of political efficacy affect different forms of societal participation. The result shows that it is primarily the internal political efficacy that has effect on societal participation; there are significant results of the logistic regressions on all three forms of participation. As for the external political efficacy it only appears to have effect on “buycott”. However the model for the regressions did not show significant model-fit for the analysis of lawful demonstration. The main conclusion is that both dimensions of political efficacy affect societal participation but it is hard to say whether the different dimensions clearly affect different forms of participation.</p>

Barn och ungas möjligheter till delaktighet och inflytande diskuteras idag flitigt i de politiska rummen. Syftet med denna uppsats har varit att har belysa problematiken som kan uppstå i mötet mellan ungdomar och makthavare avseende delaktighet, inflytande och lärprocesser, med utgångspunkt i ett ungdomspolitiskt program i en mindre kommun i Sverige. Uppsatsen bygger på en kvalitativ ansats inspirerad av fenomenologi och hermeneutik. Deltagarna i studien valdes ut genom en kombination av strategiskt och målstyrt urval. Fem ungdomar och två makthavare inom kommunen har intervjuats för att ge en bild av hur de två olika fälten, unga och makthavare, upplever delaktighet och inflytande i den undersökta kommunen. Resultatet stärker till viss del det som tidigare forskning visat; att ungdomar använder sig av andra kanaler för att uppnå inflytande och delaktighet än de former vuxenvärlden erbjuder dem. Resultatet visar även att ungdomarna har bristfällig kunskap om delaktighet och inflytande som fenomen. Makthavarna i kommunen är medvetna om de brister som står att finna i kommunens arbete med ungas rätt till makt. De möten som skulle kunna möjliggöra ungdomars delaktighet och inflytande har inte genomförts på ett för kommunen tillfredsställande sätt och har således heller inte gett unga de möjligheter som det var tänkt. Fortsatt forskning behövs, över längre tid och i fler kommuner för att ge ytterligare indikatorer på vad som kan förbättras och utvecklas i arbetet med den nationella ungdomspolitiken gällande delaktighet och inflytande. Inom ramen för pedagogisk forskning behövs fler infallsvinklar för att få en helhetsbild av vilka faktorer inom lärande som påverkar dessa frågor. / <p>Godkännande datum: 2019-06-05</p>

This essay examines the changing behavior of young Swedish voters in the 2022 election, showing a shift towards right-wing parties compared to older voters. Focusing on the period from 2010 to 2022, it analyzes the influence of gender and education on subjective political alignment and party choice of young voters in parliamentary elections. The study relies on a statistical analysis of exit poll surveys from Swedish Television, from the elections that took place during the period. Previous research suggests that today's younger generations lean towards post- materialistic or libertarian values due to improved material and economic security, while older generations lean towards materialistic and authoritarian values. As older voters pass away and young people gain voting rights, support for libertarian parties is expected to increase while backing for authoritarian parties should decline. However, this essay challenges the previous research, suggesting that despite increased opportunities for higher education and affluence, certain demographic groups, particularly young men who opt out of these opportunities, are more likely to adopt authoritarian values. The results disclose that both gender and education significantly impact the political alignment and party choice of young people throughout the studied period, with the most significant changes observed among the youngest men.

This thesis is about the effect of political efficacy on societal participation among youths aged 15 to 29. It takes a starting point in the gloomy view of the decline of political participation among citizens in the western world, especially pointing out youths as a threat to democracy. This is a broad subject to take on so my aim becomes a bit more specific. The aim of the thesis is therefore to investigate if belief in ones own capacity and in the responsiveness of the political system affects the actual participation among youths in Europe, independent of a set of alternative predictors. Moreover the thesis is divided into two sub-investigations, one qualitative and one quantitative. The qualitative part discusses and analyzes the concept of political efficacy in a new and broader way outlining two dimensions of the concept, internal and external political efficacy. Using the modified definition of political efficacy the quantitative part provides an analysis of the effects of internal and external efficacy on societal participation among youths. This analysis is done in three steps. First four theoretical groups are derived from the two dimensions of political efficacy and then these are analysed against a set of control variables and three forms of societal participation, lawful public demonstration, contacting a politician or public official and buying a product for certain political, ethical or environmental reasons (“buycott”). Secondly a set of logistic regressions are performed analysing the effect of each dimension of political efficacy on the three forms of societal participation controlling for six alternative predictors (the control variables). Lastly the effects of each dimension of political efficacy are compared to see if different dimensions of political efficacy affect different forms of societal participation. The result shows that it is primarily the internal political efficacy that has effect on societal participation; there are significant results of the logistic regressions on all three forms of participation. As for the external political efficacy it only appears to have effect on “buycott”. However the model for the regressions did not show significant model-fit for the analysis of lawful demonstration. The main conclusion is that both dimensions of political efficacy affect societal participation but it is hard to say whether the different dimensions clearly affect different forms of participation.