Swedish youth policy in a European perspective

Swedish youth policy is characterised by the fact that it includes many areas of policy and is cross-sectoral, that it sees young people as a resource and that there is a minister responsible for youth affairs and of national objectives for youth policy.

National youth policies in Europe differ concerning which age groups youth policy is considered to be intended for. The main target group identified in the EU programme Youth in Action is young people between 13 and 30 years. International law and statistics define young people as people aged between 15 and 24 years.

However, this definition does not apply to all national youth policies. In some European countries both children and young people over the age of 24 are included in the group “young people” – in those countries child policy and youth policy are the same thing.

Other European countries distinguish between policy for children and policy for young people. In these countries the policy areas overlap somewhat as child policy applies to people who are not of legally competent age and youth policy applies to teenagers and young adults.

Young people as a problem or a resource
Another way of comparing youth policy work in different countries is to study how countries view young people. In somewhat simplified terms there are two different views of young people and they determine what the motives for youth policy are: seeing young people as being in a problematic situation specifically because they are young and seeing young people mainly as a resource.

The view that young people are in a problem-filled situation is based on the belief that young people are vulnerable, in danger and in need of protection. They are vulnerable because of their childhood conditions, personal circumstances or other conditions in society.

However, if young people are seen as a resource to society this means not only that young people will be valuable in future, but they are already valuable by virtue of their status as young people. They can contribute to society through their knowledge of what it is like to be young. In this perspective young people are considered responsible for their actions and fully competent to assume this responsibility.

Both perspectives are present in the youth policy of more or less every country at the same time and the thing that separates countries is which view is predominant.

In the European countries that have a long tradition of a combined child and youth policy the predominant perspective has often been that young people are in a problematic situation specifically because they are young. The countries where the view of young people as a resource in society has been the predominant view are often countries where youth policy is a relatively new political area. Sweden belongs to the latter group of countries.

Youth as a period of life
Youth as a period of life can be seen in a number of ways and this produces various youth policy strategies. How prominent the strategies are varies.

• Youth as a transitional phase – youth is seen solely as a transitional phase that is mainly extended because of a lack of access to jobs or other measures.


• Youth as a socialisation phase – youth is seen as a period during which young people are brought up to be responsible citizens and are to receive training both in the labour market and as citizens.


• Youth as a period for struggle for social status – the problems of youth is that social structures (such as education, welfare systems and labour market) are not open to young people or obstruct their development. Youth policy is mainly focused on changing and adapting these structures so that young people are given more access.


• Youth as a period with a value of its own – youth is a period that is valuable in itself, like later periods in life. Youth policy takes this into account.

The differences between these different views of youth must not be exaggerated. Swedish youth policy has elements of all four of these views. It can also be assumed that there are elements of training in all work on young people’s influence. Young people should not just be able to make decisions concerning their everyday life; they should also be schooled in democratic thinking.

Much of Swedish youth policy is about seeing youth as a transitional phase. Many of the measures taken are intended to help young people establish themselves as independent individuals. Actions taken to enable young people to get a job, move away from home and establish an independent life are examples of this. These actions are about both making youth a good period and moving on, becoming an adult.

A youth policy sector
In some countries youth policy is well defined in relation to other policy sectors, with its own ministry, its own legislation and its own administration. In other countries youth policy is spread over a number of sectors (school, care, culture, health and so on). In yet other countries there is basically no youth policy sector and there is only a small degree of national coordination of youth policy.

The countries that have a clearly defined youth policy sector often have a somewhat narrower political focus on, for instance, youth organisations and leisure, while questions like education, housing and health are not included as frequently. In countries that have a narrowly defined youth policy sector, there is often a greater inclination to work across sector boundaries.

The view that countries take of youth policy influences how they work at national level. There is a connection between how narrowly the youth policy sector is defined and how centralised youth policy is. Countries that do not have a youth policy sector only have a small degree of national coordination of youth policy. In countries with a clear and organised youth policy sector there is usually a ministry with responsibility for coordinating youth policy nationally, regionally and locally. Sweden is on an intermediate level as regards national coordination.

What characterises Swedish youth policy
It is difficult to make direct comparisons between different countries because of the existing differences in views about the target group for youth policy and how youth policy is to be organised. However, five tendencies can be distinguished if Swedish youth policy is compared with policies in many other countries in Europe.

Firstly, Swedish youth policy is characterised by the fact that it is mainly directed at young people between 13 and 25, a distinction is made between child policy and youth policy.

A second distinctive feature is that Swedish youth policy is broader than youth policy in many other countries as it includes many other areas, it is cross-sectoral. Welfare issues have a natural place in Swedish youth policy, not just issues concerning for example associative life and education.

Thirdly, we can see that Swedish youth policy bears clear traces of post-war welfare policy in Scandinavia. It is a policy that wants to enable all young people to establish themselves as independent adults. In many other countries youth policy applies to certain groups considered to be in need of special action. But in recent years there has been a shift in perspective in Swedish youth policy as the government and the Riksdag are emphasising more clearly that the measures taken should pay particular attention to young people with less opportunities.

A fourth distinctive feature of Swedish youth policy is the will to see young people as a resource, and this affects the design of policy. Instead of seeing youth as problematic in itself and a period full of threats that young people have to get through as best they can, Swedish youth policy emphasises that this period in life is valuable. The measures given priority are mainly of the kind that can support young people in their own choices combined with measures for particularly vulnerable groups, like, for example, young people who are far from the labour market or live in an environment full of risks.

A fifth distinctive feature of Sweden is the existence of a minister responsible for youth affairs and of national objectives for youth policy. Sweden also has a government agency – the Swedish National Board for Youth Affairs – that is responsible for coordinating and following up national youth policy. At the same time local self-government in Swedish municipalities means that municipal youth policy cannot be steered by the state. Municipalities can, if they so wish, base their youth policy work on the national goals, but ultimately the shape of their youth policy is determined by the individual municipality.