Countries of the World/COUNTRYS.BIN/dp/0110/01105.txt

Text File | 1991-06-25 | 32KB | 511 lines

$Unique_ID{COW01105}
$Pretitle{411}
$Title{Denmark
Danish Politics From Absolutism to Democracy}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Henning Dehn Nielsen}
$Affiliation{Ministry of Foreign Affairs}
$Subject{government
party
denmark
liberal
democratic
constitution
new
social
minister
danish}
$Date{1990}
$Log{}
Country:     Denmark
Book:        Facts about Denmark
Author:      Henning Dehn Nielsen
Affiliation: Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Date:        1990

Danish Politics From Absolutism to Democracy

     On 5 June 1849, Frederik VII, who had come to the throne of Denmark the
previous year, signed the Constitutional Act of the Danish Realm. With his
signature he abolished the absolutism introduced 189 years earlier by Frederik
III - in 1660. Denmark had become a constitutional monarchy. The change-over
from absolutism to representative government in Denmark was undramatic.

     There was no question of a revolution, for although the Constitutional
Act of 1665 gave the ruling monarch almost absolute power, absolutism in
Denmark was to a large extent a collegiate form of government; at the end of
the 18th century it included the foremost men of the Age of Enlightenment.
They carried through a social and economic revolution that covered major
agricultural reforms (including the abolition in 1788 of the principle of
adscription, whereby feudal serfs were attached to the soil) and the Education
Act of 1814. The transition from absolutism to representative government,
although at times spasmodic, was on the whole a gradual process.

International background

     The wars at the end of the 18th century and at the beginning of the 19th
between France, England, Germany and Russia made it difficult for Denmark to
maintain her neutrality. As from 1780 Denmark had a pact of armed neutrality
with Russia and Sweden, amongst other reasons in order to secure income for
her big merchant fleet on the principle of "free ship, free cargo". But in
1801 Denmark was forced out of this alliance after a British fleet under Lord
Nelson had defeated the Danish fleet at the Battle of Copenhagen. In 1807
France and Russia set up a common front against England by introducing the
so-called Continental System, whereupon Denmark abandoned her neutrality and
went over to Napoleon's side. After Napoleon's fall Denmark was committed
under the decisions reached at the Congress of Vienna in 1814 to establish a
constitution allowing provincial consultative assemblies for Holstein.
Although the call for "liberty, equality and fraternity" voiced during the
French Revolution of 1789 was not heard in Denmark, the events of 1830 in
Paris and in the Netherlands made an impression on the Danish monarch,
Frederik VI.

Domestic background

     Fears that the revolutionary movements might spread were increased in
1831, when a demand was raised in Holstein for a free constitution for the
duchies of both Slesvig and Holstein, which were supposed to be forever
undivided (up ewig ungedeelt). Urged on by this situation the king announced
that he had decided to give his people a constitution allowing
consultative provincial assemblies. In 1834 provincial consultative chambers
were indeed set up in four places - apart from Holstein also in Slesvig,
Jutland and Zealand, representing the islands. The first meetings were held in
1835 at Roskilde and Itzehoe. Only men over the age of thirty years - and
possessed of a certain amount of property - were allowed to elect
representatives to the assemblies. With these restrictions the number of
voters was only about 40,000 out of a population of some 2.5 million.

     The issues on which the government asked these assemblies to express
their views mainly concerned laws referring to personal and property rights.
But the open debate and a demand from the Liberals for full freedom of the
press served to accelerate the process towards a really free constitution.

     For farming people this was not a primary objective. Their
dissatisfaction was based on local conditions, social as well as economic.
They objected to being the only ones liable to be conscripted for military
service and they wanted deeds of tenure abolished. A rebellion spread, and in
1846, through the formation of The Society of Farmers' Friends (Bondevennernes
Selskab) they joined the Liberals in a demand for a free constitution. A
strong contributory reason for the solidarity which developed between the
farmers and especially the Liberals of Copenhagen was the Farmers' Circular of
1845, which forbade farming people to "hold meetings in the towns and with men
from outside the parish". The prohibition had the opposite effect from that
intended.

     As soon as Frederik VII came to the throne in January 1849 a conflict
broke out between pro-Danish and pro-German citizens. A deputation from
Slesvig and Holstein, imbued with the spirit of the French Revolution,
demanded of the new king that he provide a free, common constitution for
Holstein and Slesvig and moreover allow Slesvig to be incorporated within the
German Confederation. The National Liberals held meetings of protest in
Copenhagen, and on 21 March went to the king with a counter-demand for a
common, free constitution for Denmark and Slesvig and a new, National Liberal
government. The king yielded that very same day, dismissed the old government
and declared himself to be a constitutional monarch. Two days later a
rebellion broke out in Kiel, in Holstein, which sparked off the three-year
war of 1848-50. Prussia supported the rebels until July 1849, and peace
between Prussia and Denmark was finally concluded on 2 July 1850.
Schleswig-Holstein, which was not included in the agreement, resumed
hostilities on 24 July, but without Prussia's help the duchies were unable to
cope. The Schleswig-Holstein army was disbanded in 1851 and Prussia occupied
Holstein. Denmark had quelled the rebellion but Denmark's constitutional
situation remained essentially the same as in 1848.

The June Constitution

     The new National Liberal government under the leadership of A.W. Moltke
(with the title of premierminister, changed in 1855 to konseilsproesident)
took over in March 1848 and prepared to summon the Constitutional National
Assembly, which on 25 May 1849 adopted Denmark's first free constitution. The
Constitutional Act was signed on 5 June 1849 and thereby ratified by Frederik
VII, whose motto was "my people's love, my strength".

     The principal author of the Constitution was the theologian Ditlev
Gothard Monrad, who had found inspiration in both the Belgian and the
Norwegian constitutions. The result was a two-chamber system consisting of a
lower chamber (Folketing, 100 members directly, elected) and an upper chamber
(Landsting, 51 members, elected indirectly by valgmoend, i.e. members of an
electoral college) known jointly as Parliament (Rigsdagen). All independent
men of unblemished reputation over thirty years of age were given
the vote. A man could be elected to the Folketing from the age of twenty-five
years, but to the Landsting only on reaching the age of forty, and then only
provided he owned property to the value of a least 1,200 rix-dollars. The
Constitution guaranteed freedom of religion, freedom of the press, freedom of
assembly and compulsory education; ordinary conscription was introduced. In
1857 the National Liberals formed a government under Carl Christian Hall. The
Sound Dues were abolished, freedom of trade was introduced and local autonomy
was extended.

The catastrophe of 1864

     The war of 1848-50 had not resolved the fundamental nationality conflict
between pro-Danish and pro-German citizens, i.e. between Denmark and
Schleswig-Holstein. The National Liberal government was left with a tricky
decision: either to introduce a Helstat constitution, i.e. for the kingdom
of Denmark as well as for the duchies of Slesvig and Holstein, or - as it
would have preferred-to establish the border at the River Ejder and thereby
cut off the pro-German province of Holstein. Increasing pressure from the