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directly influences policy. Further safeguarding its dominant position in money batters, the Folketing appoints auditors, whose job it is to check the financial accounts of the ministries. As mentioned earlier, the parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee must be consulted before the government undertakes a major act of foreign policy.
Denmark, along with Sweden, Norway, and Finland, has adopted the institution of the ombudsman, or public affairs commissioner. The Danes accepted this novel institution in 1953, just 144 years after its creation by the Swedes. The 1953 Constitution provided for the appointment by parliament of one or two persons to protect the rights of the individual Dane against official abuse. Since the inception of the office in 1955, Denmark has had only one ombudsman, although two are authorized by the Constitution. The first person appointed to the office, Stephen Hurwitz, LLD, a highly respected professor of criminal law, was succeeded in 1971 by Lars Nordskov Nielsen, LLB, the former Director of Prisons Administrations. The ombudsman may investigate national government officials of all grades, including those on the ministerial level. Certain local officials also are included in his purview, but not the judiciary.
The ombudsman may look into cases, make criticisms of official conduct, and turn the public spotlight on injustice, but he may not carry out justice by himself. Instead, he may make recommendations to parliament or the courts. He renders an annual report to the Folketing, at whose pleasure he serves. (He must be reappointed after each general election.) He receives about 1,200 complaints a year, up 32% over the period of the latter 1950s and early 1960s. Of these, about 75% are rejected as invalid. The remaining 25% are then investigated, and about one-fifth of these culminate in censure from the ombudsman or in referral by him of the cases to the Public Prosecutor or the courts. The critical attitude toward the officious official, common to the egalitarian Dane, provides a sympathetic climate within which the ombudsman may operate. In his nearly two decades of service, the ombudsman has become one of Denmark's most influential figures.
While the Danish legislators may feel confident of their ability to keep the executive branch in line, they also are aware that they and their works are subject to the judgement of the electorate, which at least once every 4 years has the right to deprive them of their highly prized political position and power. By means of the popular referendum, another innovation of the 1953 Constitution, most categories of the national legislation may be subjected to the review of the electorate and may on occasion be defeated, as were the government land laws in June 1963. One-third of the members of the Folketing may demand a referendum, and if both a majority of those voting in the referendum and not less than 30% of all eligible say "no," then the bill is defeated. Thus the referendum may take the initiative from the representatives of the people squarely to the people, providing a further popular check on governmental processes. Perhaps only among the Danes, and their similarly pragmatic, homogenous Scandinavian neighbors, can so popularly responsive a political system continue to work effectively. Exempt from the referendum are bills relating to government finance, treaty obligation, and certain other special categories.
5. Civil service
Public servants in Denmark, like those in other Teutonic and some Latin European countries, enjoy a certain prestige in the society. Partly this stems from their relative probity and effectiveness. Following a probationary period, tenure in the service is assured up to the ranks directly below that of minister. Thus, the civil servant tends to share with the Monarch the continuous and permanent political tradition and provides a steady hand for the exercise of long-established policy, a condition highly agreeable to the relatively smooth running Danish welfare state but one occasionally disagreeable to a Cabinet minister with new ideas.
The higher echelons of the civil service are occupied almost invariably by those with a university education. The prestige that comes with an appointment to public office, however, is not yet matched by the pay scales, which have languished behind those prevalent in private industry and have caused the defection of some higher level experts from the public service. Decility usually takes precedence over wanderlust in the Danish character, however, and the promise of a sizable pension has helped overcome such restiveness as may exist.
A civil servant may be discharged if the decision has the concurrence of the appropriate boards and the competent minister, but by tradition the employee enjoys a high degree of job security and by regulation is protected against arbitrary relocation or dismissal. Qualification for employment tend to be less explicitly set down than in the US system, although a competitive merit system is generally in effect. While the civil servant is expected to be neutral in the exercise of his duties, he is guaranteed complete
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