The purpose of this study is to determine if and how municipal consultative entities through influence may affect the legitimacy of the Swedish democratic model. The study aims to do this through analysing the opportunities for influence present with the Youth Council and the Council of the Retired in Karlstads municipality, to determine how the councils may affect political participation and the role of elected representatives. To do so, the study asks the following primary research question: "What requisites for influence are present for participants of municipal consultative entities, as found for the representatives of the youth and the retired within the framework of their participation in the Youth Council and the Council of the Retired in Karlstads municipality?" The study answers this research question by dividing it into one question of policy and one question of democratic perspective, and investigating these matters through nine snowballing interviews with the decision makers, organisational actors and participants of the councils. The information from the interviews is then analysed per council through a framework of democracy theory, policy process theory and organisation theory. In a final step, the results from these analyses are compared to each other to determine common and disparate traits within the policies and dominant democratic perspectives of the councils. The primary findings of the study suggest that the success of a policy in this context, and the requisites for influence, are largely determined by how standardised and traceable the paths of communication between the decision makers and the participants are. It further finds that the democratic perspective among the primary decision makers appears largely congruent with the ideal of representative democracy. This, in turn, means that municipal consultative entities have the potential to either encourage or discourage participation (and thereby strengthening or weakening the legitimacy) within the Swedish democratic model depending on whether or not they are perceived to gain real influence. At the same time, the municipal consultative entities do not appear to undermine the role of elected representatives.

Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur mycket makt och inflytande medlemmarna har i Malung-Sälens ungdomsråd. Nationell och internationell forskning hävdar att ungdomars möjligheter till inflytande och delaktighet är begränsad på grund av strukturer i samhället. Studien operationaliserades genom kvalitativa semistrukturerade intervjuer med sex ungdomar mellan 15 och 18 år från Malung-Sälens kommun. Steven Lukes maktteori har valts ut för att analysera maktaspekterna i ungdomsrådet, vilket i sin tur har besvarat studiens frågeställning. Den utvalda teorin belyser tre dimensioner av makt. Lukes andra maktdimension har prioriterats lite mer än de andra två, därför att detta perspektiv uppmärksammar något som Lukes kallar för ”dagordningsmakt” eller ”makt över dagordningen”. Studiens syfte har uppnåtts och frågeställningen har besvarats, genom att undersöka hur mycket dagordningsmakt ungdomarna har i ungdomsrådet. Studien visar på att unga idag får möjligheten att påverka genom exempelvis ungdomsråd. Ungdomarna väljer själva vad som lyfts på agendan, vilket innebär att dagordningsmakten är hög. Ingen annan aktör påverkar vad ungdomsrådet väljer att diskutera om på sina möten. Dessutom blir ungdomarna tilldelade olika roller inom ungdomsrådet, och får möjligheten att påverka och tycka till. När ungdomarna beslutar om ett förslag till förändring, skickas det till politikerna som sedan tar det avgörande beslutet. Detta innebär att det är politikernas åsikter som är avgörande när delade meningar råder.  Nyckelord: Inflytande, delaktighet, makt, ungdomar, ungdomsråd / The purpose of this study is to investigate how much power and influence the members have in Malung-Sälen's youth council. National and international research claims that young people's opportunities for influence and participation are limited due to structures in society. The study was operationalized through qualitative semi-structured interviews with six young people aged 15–18 from the municipality of Malung-Sälen. Steven Luke's theory of power has been selected to analyse the aspects of power in the youth council, which in turn has answered the study's question. The selected theory highlights three dimensions of power. Luke's second dimension of power has been prioritized a little more than the other two, because this perspective draws attention to what Luke calls "agenda power" or "power over the agenda". The aim of the study has been achieved and the question has been answered, by examining how much agenda power the young people have in the youth council. The study shows that young people today can influence through, for example, youth councils. The young people themselves choose what is put on the agenda, which means that agenda power is high. No other actor influences what the youth council chooses to discuss at its meetings. In addition, the young people are assigned different roles within the youth council and get the chance to influence and have their say. When the young people decide on a proposal for change, it is sent to the politicians who then make the decisive decision. This means that it is the politicians' views that win when divided opinions prevail.  Keywords: Influence, participation, power, young people, youth council