This article contributes with a nuanced picture of the importance of civil society for young people’s democratic socialisation and opportunities for influence, by studying public statistics on changes in membership rates in national youth organisations. Young people have long been given a special status in society and they are often perceived as either a threat or a promise. Young people’s special status is based on the fact that they do not really belong to the rest of society. They depend in different ways on others for their immediate livelihood, socialisation and for risk protection. But they also have the potential to contribute with new perspectives and change to outdated institutions. Because of their age, young people have been considered to need both democratic schooling and opportunities to find a context to express their commitment. Engagements in associations among young people has therefore been actively encouraged and supported by the state since at least the beginning of the 20th century. The results of this article show that until sometime in the 1970s and 1980s, participation in most types of national youth organisations increased, but that membership numbers subsequently decreased more or less drastically in organisations based on traditional popular mass movements, while others have increased or maintained their membership numbers.

We interpret the historical overview as evidence that the state subsidies since long has survived their purpose. The original mass movement organizations are declining in memberships, despite the efforts and those that are growing often follow the democratic procedures more to live up to the rules of the state than because of the desire to be governed by the will of the members and to change society.

This article investigates how the participation of voluntary organisations in the remiss-procedure has changed between 1964 and 2009 and how to interpret this. Drawing on evidence from 33 remiss-directories in nine different policy fields, the results conclude that the proportional level of voluntary organisations has declined and more organisations have chosen to abstain from participating in the remissprocedure. In addition, the number of conflict-oriented organisations has declined while the number of consensus-oriented organisations active in the output side of the political system has increased. It is argued that the result can be understood in relation to the changing mode of governance, new challenges presented by the welfare state and the rise of transnational organisations that seek influence in less formal arenas for policy making.

In this article, we study the legislative processes that formed the basis for how the state’s role and responsibility to protect and represent children was formulated during the 20th century based on legislative initiatives against corporal punishment. This is the backdrop for an analysis of the scheme to compensate adults that have claimed that they as children had been abused in the care of the state. As a basis for our analyzes, we have used laws and statutes, ordinances, and preparatory works in family and criminal law as well as school and social law. In the process that led up to the compensation scheme a choice was made; child abuse in the past would not be defined according to the norms set by past legislation and government ordinances to protect children from abuse, but in relation to what was believed to be common child-rearing practices. The focus shifted to current understandings of what was normal in the past as well as to how similar abuse would be treated in legal practice in current tort cases disregarding the explicit stands taken by past governments to protect children in care. The opportunity for reconciliation decreased with this development.