This paper examines the amount of influence that upper secondary school pupils of the Swedish voluntary school system. The curriculum clearly states that democratic values are to be instilled with the pupils at an early age, and that the pupils are to have a degree of democratic influence over their tutelage. This paper is based upon a survey, which involves one hundred and fourteen pupils at the Malmö Latin gymnasium. The hypothesis argues that upper secondary school pupils in Sweden have very little knowledge in this area and it contradicts much of the previous research done in this field. The pupils´ ages vary from fifteen to eighteen years of age.

The survey shows that the pupils of this school have little or no knowledge of their democratic rights within the school boundaries. It also indicates that they have no perception of how to influence their curriculum or tutelage. This paper also indicates that an overwhelming majority of the pupils at this school have no knowledge of the student body council´s duties and field of work. During this essay, we propose measures to be taken by our schools, teaching staff and management in order to improve the pupils´ knowledge, perception and competence in the matter of student democracy, in order to improve their chances of becoming good democratic citizens of Sweden in the years to come.