Democracy. A human right that's always of current interest to us. This is a word of great power – nations are even justifying acts of war by saying that they are defending democracy and freedom. But to defend democracy is also an important thing at the workplace, at home or at your school. As a student, your way to gain influence on your situation goes through the pupil's council.

The purpose with student democracy
Well, then which is the purpose of the pupil's council? The pupil's council is a body for contact between pupils and the school management. Usually, the members of the pupil's council does only have a restricted amount of influence on the school activity. In Sweden, representatives are chosen in every class to make shore that every pupils' opinion will reach the ears of the councils leading representatives. These ”leading ones” are representatives who have been given the task to listen to the pupils requests and then try to put as many of them as possible into effect. But practically speaking, all that the council can do is to make the principal or someone else from the school management listen to them. The next step is, of course, trying to convince them to actually put the ideas of the pupils into action. A council normally gathers regularly during school hours, where they discusses different questions of current interest. Just as any other organisation, the council has a chairperson, a secretary and a cashier.

Student democracy at Parkskolan At a school like Parskolan in Ornskoldsvik, the pupil's council are responsible for various arrangements such as performances at Christmas and the yearly photographing of the pupils. The members of the council helps the photographer and earns around 50 Eurocents per each pupil who does order something from the photo company. This is also an important way for the council to earn some money to afford all their costs, such as payment for courses which members of the council are going to learn more about their tasks. It's usual that the money is used to educate the cashier about his task, for example. They also have the right to attend when the school management is having their monthly conferences. This is when the representatives have the opportunity to confront the leading staff at their school and let them hear the pupils’ thoughts and questions. It is very common that students as well as teachers are questioning this system. It is accused of being a false way of democracy, without any real power to affect the management’s decisions. ”The pupil's council”, people say, ”does only exist so that schools can claim themselves to be encouraging the principles of democracy”. It may also be correct that the council in different ways are limited and restricted, but it should be considered that this is something that the majority of all democratic organisations have to face.	Sevin, chairperson of the pupil's council of Parkskolan
	Torbjörn, cashier of the council
	Ida, secretary of the council

What's original for Sweden?
There are some differences between student democracy in Sweden and in other countries. For example, it is obviously more common in Sweden that the council has its own office where the members can have their conferences. The chairperson, the secretary and the cashier often receives their own keys, since it's is so important for them with the opportunity to work with different tasks following their position. Off course, an office that they can visit anytime they need makes their work much easier. As it was mentioned earlier, the pupils’ council are responsible for their own economy; a freedom which may easy turn into a burden. This is a fact that the council at Parkskolan had to face during September 2004, when they realised that 10.000 Swedish crowns (around 1000 Euro) had been stolen from their account between the 18th of August and the 1st of September. This was all the money they had – money supposed to afford all activities planned for the coming year. The money had been taken out at a cash dispenser in the centre of town, with a card that had been left in good hands up at the school office. Nobody saw how it was taken from there, and nobody saw how it was returned. Today, this incident is still a mystery.

Another thing that is worth to notice about Swedish student democracy is that that you don’t run any campaign to become elected as chairperson. Instead, a new chairperson is elected by the pupil's council itself and they choose between representatives who are already members of the council. These members are elected by their classmates to represent their class. In other words: if you want to see big, America-inspired signs with texts like ”Vote for me - because I’m worth it!” …well, then Sweden is not the right country to visit.

Questionaire about the pupil's council
In wiew of the widespread opinion that the pupil's council does not any purpose, a questionnaire was handed out to 20 students at Parkskolan to investigate what they knew about their own council at Parkskolan. The pupils’, in the ages between 16 and 18, are not informed about the details of the councils’ activity, but the majority has a full view of how the councils main task is to present the demands of the pupils for the school management. Belive it or not, but more than 90 % of the pupils’ are of the opinion thta their school needs the pupils’ council. They also claims themselves to believe in school democracy, even though some of them says that the system should be changed in some way. Only 20% of the pupils could mention the name of anyone in the leading council, but they all knew who represented their own class.