APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R000200110016-6
in 1870 of the Conservatives and National Liberals as the right, the Agrarians moved towards the middle, their place on the left being taken by the new Social Democrats, the political spokesmen for the new industrial worker forces. With the rapid industrialization and extension of the vote - universal suffrage was achieved in 1918 - the Social Democrats increased in strength. By the 1920s they were the most important single political force, consistently capturing at least a third of the popular vote from that time forward.
The Radical Liberal Party was formed in 1905 from the dissident left-wing of the former Agrarian Party, now called the Moderate Liberal Party. For more than half a century it remained one of the smaller parties, but by 1970 it had joined the modern day "bourgeois" Conservatives and Moderate Liberals as a significant political force. This belated surge in strength was assured by its leadership - from January 1968 to September 1971 - of the governing coalition of the three parties, each of which now commands the allegiance of 15% to 17% of the electorate, less than half of the 37% marshaled by the Social Democrats in the 1971 national election.
Since the turn of the century, a number of smaller parties have been formed, some coming into being as the result of divisions within the major parties, while others have begun life on their own. Only the Radical Liberals have risen to big party status, displaying a remarkable staying power of nearly 70 years. Most small parties have had to struggle to survive. A few have faded from the scene altogether or have become moribund. At times these smaller parties have had an outsized influence because of their ability to supply the major parties with that added margin of strength needed to form a government or to survive as a government. Before becoming a major party, the Radical Liberals played such a pivotal role on several occasions, allying more often with the Social Democrats than with the parties to the right. The Marxist Socialist People's Party has helped the Social Democrats to survive since the September 1971 election. Encouraged by a liberal proportional representation law, minor parties continue to be born, despite the adverse fate of so many similar earlier ventures. In the 1971 national election 10 political parties in all entered the contest.
The Communist Party of Denmark, formed in 1919 by left-wing Marxist rebels from the Social Democratic Party, is one of the two oldest surviving small parties. The other, the Single Tax or Justice Party, was founded the same year by the Danish followers of the US political economist, Henry George. The Danish Communist movement, after a brief post-World War II surge of strength, was sundered in 1958, when "Titoists" under former Communist chairmen Aksel Larsen were first ousted and then formed their own radical Marxist Socialist People's Party the following year. In turn, an anti-Larsen faction of the new Marxist party broke ranks in 1967, protesting its growing collaboration with the governing Social Democrats. Both renegade Marxist groups fared better than the parent Communist Party, which in the five elections since the initial split failed to gain any representation in the Folketing. The Justice Party, still actively competing in national elections, has failed to win a seat in the last six such elections. The Moderate Liberal Party, despite its size and relative influence today, has spawned several small dissident parties over the past 70 years. Among these are the ultraconservative Independent Party, founded in 1953, and the Liberal Center Party, founded in 1965. Both proved moribund in 1968 and chose not to run in 1971. The Christian People's Party, which garnered 2% of the vote in 1971, was formed largely by former adherents of the Independent and the Liberal Center Party.
The Danish parties, large or small, share many of the same attitudes and objectives, differing more in their views as to how the goals should be attained. Seven of the 10 parties shown - all except the pivotal Socialist People's Party, and the insignificant Left Socialist and Communist Parties - are democratically oriented in the Western sense. Notwithstanding the national sensitivity to political freedom, some citizens would give the Socialist People's Party and the Left Socialist Party the benefit of the doubt. There is general across-the-board agreement among the many parties that the government must on occasion intervene to control the economy - the only recent dissenter being the now defunct Independent Party of the far right, which advocated virtually an unadulterated laissez-faire system. In the realm of foreign policy there is more diversity. Most recently, in the October 1972 plebiscite, nearly 37% of the electorate opposed Denmark joining the European Communities. The dissenters included all left-wing Socialists and Communists, right-wing nationalists, and many Social Democratic intellectuals and factory workers, even though that party was in power and led the movement to join. The Radical Liberals were reported split down the middle on the same issue. NATO membership continues to win majority assent, but barely. Large minorities among the Radical Liberals and indeed the governing Social Democrats disapprove of Denmark's military participation in the Alliance, while all the far left factions remain opposed. Nonetheless, the Social Democrats, the Conservatives, and the two Liberal parties reached accord in February 1973, which in effect assured continued NATO adherence through 1977.
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APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R000200110016-6
