The 1990s were characterised by severe economic recession and significant changes of young people´s situation in Sweden, as in many other European countries. Youth unemployment rocketed, and the financial conditions deteriorated for large groups of young men and women. Ethnic and social divisions increased. Swedish municipalities were given increased responsibility for the rapidly growing groups of unemployed youth. Temporary youth projects became a significant aspect of the new local youth politics evolving in this situation. Such projects were found in almost all Swedish municipalities in the 1990s. The aims of the projects were manifold: they were to activate, motivate and strengthen the self-confidence of young people. Preparation for the future, e.g. by promoting entrepreneurship and communication skills, and social integration of disadvantaged young people were other common aims. Local youth projects may be regarded as political efforts to establish local citizen influence building on the needs of the participants. From another point of view they respond to a political need to find replacement for the "old" system of welfare distribution. The projects embody important aspects of contemporary Swedish politics: decentralisation, management by objectives, governance at a distance and increased focus on autonomy and self- regulation . The paper is based on a nation-wide survey of youth projects in Sweden and emanates from the project Youth politics and the strategies of young people . The survey embraced local youth projects governed or supported by the municipalities. A first analysis indicated striking similarities between youth projects at the discursive level. Youth projects were ambitious and included a wide range of what could be expected to be young people´s needs (strengthening self-confidence, work provision, etc.). After having conducted a 2-year study of 35 young men and women participating in youth projects in three municipalities, we however concluded that the project activities in reality often were poorly staffed and equipped and were largely dependent on funding sources, rather than on actual needs among the young people involved . This indicated a gap between policy formulation and realisation and put our attention to the youth policy discourse from an ideological point of view. In this paper I present an analysis based on project documentation from the national survey mentioned above, and the Swedish National board for Youth Affairs, respectively. The aim of the paper is to analyse the ideological content of the new youth policy discourse during the 1990s. The basic question addressed is: What are the ideological characteristics and underlying assumptions of young people and their situation? Specific questions are: Which views on youth are reflected in the project discourse? How are youth problems and the solutions of these problems constructed? Is the project discourse based on specific moral and ideological views on society?