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Introduction

In 2023, the Nordic Rural Youth Panel called for stronger youth involvement in policymaking regarding issues that shape everyday life in rural areas, including transport, housing, education, local jobs, public spaces and wellbeing (Wøien Meijer et al., 2023). These priorities point to a broader concern: how young people’s perspectives are included in democratic decision-making beyond urban centres and formal electoral channels.

Across the Nordic Region, democratic systems remain strong in aggregate terms, with stable electoral participation and no uniform rise in populist support. However, these national averages conceal uneven patterns of political engagement and trust, with more pronounced political discontent in intermediate and some rural areas compared to urban municipalities (Sánchez Gassen et al., 2025). At the same time, young people across Europe consistently appear as a structurally vulnerable group in democratic participation, with lower turnout than older cohorts and signs of growing political disengagement, particularly in local elections (Bressanelli & Bernardi, 2025; Nordic Council of Ministers, 2017). It is vital to address these uneven patterns, not only to ensure inclusive democratic representation across territories and generations, but also to strengthen democratic resilience by reducing participation gaps. Otherwise, these gaps threaten to deepen distrust and undermine the legitimacy of democratic institutions.

Against this backdrop, this paper develops a conceptual foundation for understanding impactful youth participation in sub-national policymaking in the Nordic countries. It defines what impactful participation entails, examines how participation is institutionalised across different national contexts, and develops an analytical framework for identifying barriers to and opportunities for strengthening rural youth participation. The paper treats youth participation as a governance challenge within local and regional systems. Drawing on Archon Fung’s (2006) Democracy Cube, it analyses participation through three dimensions (who is involved, how participation is organised and the influence it has) and considers how these are shaped in practice by leadership, consensus-building and the extent to which these three dimensions influence youth participation in municipalities and regions (Fung, 2015).

About this paper

Methods

This working paper is based on a review of relevant open-access literature on participatory democracy, youth participation and democratic resilience, covering both academic publications and grey literature from intergovernmental bodies, national youth councils and organisations involved in youth policy and practice. The purpose of the review was to map the field and identify frameworks and debates relevant to the theoretical framing of this paper. It was complemented by scoping interviews with staff and leadership at the national youth councils of Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland, conducted online in 2026. The interviews explored how youth organisations are currently structured and how young people’s participation is supported in practice across the Nordic countries.

About the project

This working paper has been produced as part of the research project “Young and Rooted: Strengthening youth representation in Nordic regions”, led by Nordregio (Nordregio, n.d.). The project forms part of the Nordic thematic group for local and regional resilience and attractiveness and contributes to the Nordic Co-operation Programme for Regional Development and Planning 2025–2030, under the Nordic Council of Ministers’ Committee of Senior Officials for Regional Policy (EK-R). Running from January 2026 to December 2027, the project examines youth participation in Nordic policymaking through the lens of democratic resilience, based on the principle that young people’s inclusion in political processes is a prerequisite for robust democracies.