introduction

The first task in any study of liberalism in Denmark is to decide which parties can justifiably be classified as ‘liberal’, given the country's fragmented party system, particularly since 1973. There are two main candidates for this label and both will be dealt with in this chapter.

The name of the first, Venstre, (founded in the 1870s) translates literally as ‘The Left’, which relates to the party's nineteenth-century origins as the proponent of electoral reform and the parliamentary principle of governmental responsibility to the popularly elected majority. Under the name ‘The United Left’, Venstre issued Denmark's first political party manifesto in 1872, emphasising reformist aims and opposition to the anti-parliamentary government of ‘The Right’ which continued to hold power under the monarch until 1901.

The name Venstre is sometimes translated into English as the Liberal Democratic Party, and sometimes as Agrarian Liberals, in recognition of the main source of their electoral support, both originally and currently. In 1970 the party confirmed its own claim to its liberal inheritance by formally adopting a suffix to its name, becoming Venstre – Danmarks liberale Parti.

The second candidates for the ‘liberal’ label are the Radical Liberals, Det radikale Venstre (often referred to as the Radicals). They broke away from Venstre in 1905, partly reflecting dissatisfaction among smallholders that Venstre's tax reforms bore more heavily on them than on large farms, and partly because of their objection to proposed increases in defence expenditure. Nevertheless, the Radicals shared Venstre's orientation towards individual political participation and limited government.