LEISURE POLITICIANS IN A SWEDISH MUNICIPAL COMMITTEE: An anthropological study of perceived difficulties and motivation among leisure politicians in a municipal committee in Sweden

Abstract

Political engagement is declining in Sweden, so is the amount of people willing to engage in municipal politics and become leisure politicians, who make up a majority of public representatives. This paper is concerned with the working conditions of leisure politicians as well as their motivations. It aims to illuminate the difficulties they face in their everyday political activities; their relationships with each other, the municipal hierarchy, and the administrations. This paper argues that leisure politicians face a concentration of power from them, the elected representatives, into the hands of both administration and political leadership in the municipal executive board, as well as the political parties. This in turn has a negative effect on the perceived influence leisure politicians have, and can exert, which also diminishes their motivation to continue their political careers thus reinforcing the democratic issue that is the concentration of power into fewer positions. Dramaturgical theory and emotional labour are employed to discuss the performative nature of leisure politicians’ duties as well as emotional impacts of problems faced. The methods used for this project included participant observation in a Swedish municipal committee in early 2024, in addition to semi- structured interviews with a handful leisure politicians in said committee.