The aim of this study is to investigate wether the participatory democracy is a threat or a complement to the representative democracy. To achieve my purpose I will focus on two different lokal councils, the civil council in Hovsjö and the youth council in Västra Skogås, which have been objects of the urban policy in 1998. The theoretical framework on which this study is based consists of the participation democratic theory, representative democratic theory and implementation theory. By problemizing these theoretical frameworks in comparison with eachother I will mapp how these two lokal councils were implemented. The research question is: In what way was the civil council and the youth council a complement or threat to the representative democracy? In which way was it difficult to implement them?

The method used for this purpose is a qualitative comparative case study. In this study I derive an ideal type to be able to compare the participatory and the representative democratic theory. Four contrasts between the theoretical frameworks are being studied to investigate whether the two councils has functioned as threats or complements to the representative democracy. The main result of the study is that these two councils met several problems in the implementationprocess. The participation democracy were not able to function as a complement to the representative democracy. In many ways it was a threat but also the actors in the representative democracy were not willing to delegate power and decisions to the citizens.