General commitments for politics and social issues

Persons who chose to become candidates in the elections to the municipal councils mainly do so out of a great interest for politics and societal issues and a wish to contribute to the development towards a better society. A majority of the elected representatives are positive towards their political assignment, and are largely satisfied with the democracy on the local as well as the national level. They feel that as representatives they are largely regarded as positive from their family, relatives, friends, neighbours, colleagues and other elected representatives and citizens. However, about 25 percent say that they have experienced harassment or discrimination related to the political assignment.

Number of those who drop out from municipal councils increases

During the 2010–2014 term of office about 19 percent of those originally elected left their assignments before the term ended. This is an increase compared with 2002-2006, as well as 2006-2010 when the share of dropouts among those originally elected was 16-17 percent. The persons who quit are unevenly distributed among different groups. Young people leave their assignments to a greater extent, and young women in particular. During the 2010-2014 term of office, 46 percent of the elected women aged 18-29 had left their assignments before the term ended, compared with 42 percent of the men in the same age group. The majority of those who were elected to the municipal council in 2010 and who quit their assignments before the end of term above all say that it was due to personal reasons. Roughly 58 percent report personal reasons as the determining factor. The reasons differ across age groups. Among the younger persons aged 18-29, 80 percent report that personal reasons were the most important for dropping out, compared to 47 percent among those who were age 65 and older.

The attitudes towards the political assignment are positive among the elected persons regardless if they chose to leave early or not. However, we see that those who chose to quit were somewhat more dissatisfied than those who remained in office. This was the case for things such as support from the party, the extent to which expectations were fulfilled and the experience of being an elected representative. However, the majority of those who dropped out seemed to be satisfied with the experience from the assignment. Many still have positions of trust or are members in the party and say they would be willing to run for office in the future. Of those who chose to leave office, 42 percent said they would consider running for office again in the future.

The representatives of democracy – a study about representativity and participation