Youth and democracy

An offprint of report 210, Youth and democracy. It is an account of the democratic skills of Swedish pupils in comprehensive school.

The purpose of the study has been to map and analyse young people's knowledge, attitudes, value systems and engagement in democracy and issues of society. The study is part of a corresponding international study, The IEA Civic Education Study. Issues of democracy have been top priority on the political agenda during the last decade. Sweden is no exception in that matter. There is a concern about the citizens' declining interest in political participation and engagement. Therefore there is also an interest in how young people relate to these matters. During the last fifty years school has had an important responsibility in society in teaching citizenship and democracy to new generations. Today the meaning of this responsibility is that school should give all young people the knowledge and skills they will need as grown citizens to be able to participate in the democracy. But the meaning is also that school itself should function as a democratic environment. Even though democratic skills are something young people acquire both in and out of school, school is still an important link to forming future society. Therefore there is all the reason to pay attention to this part of school's responsibility. That is also the purpose of the report Youth and democracy, which is the first one of two reports, about school's responsibility in society.