5. Participation
In many countries, young people are taking their first steps as full participants in a democratic society. In Iceland, the voting age is 18 in both parliamentary and municipality elections. The topic of this chapter is to disseminate how young people in Iceland can directly participate in political work as well as how they might influence policy makers through participation in the work of NGO’s which specifically targets young people. In short, young people can participate in political work through youth divisions of their political party, which most parties in parliament have. This puts them in a better position to influence members of parliament, particularly in their respective party. Young people are also able to take part in NGO’s and attempt to influence policy makers. Among such NGO’s are Youth Work Iceland and The Upper Secondary Student Union.