What factors affect the influence of civil society organizations on local policy? To date, the vast majority of studies concerning the role of civil
society organizations in democracy have been either case-oriented studies of a limited number organizations or they have been based on surveys directed toward individuals; therefore, knowledge of the capacity of civil society organizations to influence policy at the local level is limited (cf.
Maloney & van Deth, 2010). The study uses survey data from a national sample of about 800 local grass roots organizations in Sweden. Each organization is connected to a local community enabling the test of the importance of both organizational factors and the local government on the capacity of the grass roots organizations to influence local politics.
