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FIGURE 4. Popular votes (in thousands) and seats won by parties in parliamentary elections (U/OU)

	30 October 1945			28 October 1947			5 September 1950			21 April 1953[1]			22 September 1953[2]
Parties	Votes	%	Seats	Votes	%	Seats	Votes	%	Seats	Votes	%	Seats	Votes	%	Seats
Social Democratic	672	33	48	834	40	57	813	40	50	837	40	61	895	41.3	74
Conservative	374	18	26	250	12	17	345	18	27	359	17	26	266	16.8	30
Moderate Liberal	479	23	38	575	28	49	438	21	32	457	22	33	500	23.1	42
Radical Liberal	167	8	11	144	7	10	148	8	12	179	9	13	169	7.8	14
Socialist People's
Liberal Center
Independent													59	2.7	0
Justice	38	2	3	95	5	6	169	8	12	115	6	9	78	3.5	6
Christian People's
Communist	255	13	18	141	7	9	95	5	7	99	5	7	94	4.3	8
Schleswig				7	0.4	0	6	0.3	0	6	0.6	0	10	0.5	1
Left Socialist

Politicians tend to view most issues as if through bifocals: one lens bringing into sharpest focus their party's history and tradition, the other lends revealing most clear the needs of present day political pragmatism. Since the latter imperatives often taken priority, the non-doctrinaire centrist parties tend to cooperate on policy formulation. They may often find themselves in more of a friendly enemy relationship than one of ideological arch foes.

a. Social Democratic Party

The Social Democratic Party (SDP) has been the strongest single force in Danish politics since the latter 1920s, but it has never had an absolute majority in the Folketing. During its several long tenures as the national government, therefore, it frequently depended on the support of lesser parties for its continuance in power. The SDP has espoused a non-doctrinaire, moderately leftist political philosophy, and although not strictly a labor party, it still enjoys powerful support from the industrial workers. In 1973, as only a single vote holds the balance in parliament and determines that the Socialist bloc has power, some SDP spokesmen urge an accelerated pace for the imposition of economic democracy so as to win votes from the far left. Over the long haul, however, change will continue to be gradual, regardless of the outcome of the election.^[3] The SDP leadership appears to recognize that the moneymaking propensities of the entrepreneurs, hence the profit motive, must be maintained to finance the costly welfare system.

At its inception in 1871 the Social Democratic Party represented Marxist socialism. Some of its leaders had participated in the First Internationale in 1864. As Danish life improved, the sharp edges of Marxist doctrine were eroded, and by 1913, with the adoption of the first broad Danish Social Democratic program, strong threats of pragmatism began showing through the party's well-worn red trappings. Sounding a rather uncertain trumpet, the 1913 platform called for nationalization of the means of production when this was in the national interest. Once in power, however, from the mid-1920s forward, the SDP directed relatively little effort toward bringing private manufacturing and merchandising into the public sphere. Instead, the now flourishing private cooperatives - a Danish "first" - continued to be encouraged as the most effective brake on monopolistic practices. Finally, in 1961, the party's platform was forthrightly amended to disavow nationalization as a major goal, stating that the community must acknowledge the right of both private and public ownership.

The Social Democratic Party during the early radical years scored few successes. The party first participated in parliamentary elections in 1872 but remained unrepresented in the Folketing until 1884. By 1895 it had only 8 seats; by 1901, 14; and by 1906, 24. The SDP's increasing strength in the early years of the 20th century was directly related to the extension of the vote to the working classes. With the advent of complete universal suffrage in 1918, the Social Democrats won 39 seats in the national elections of that year. Only in 1924, however, did the party overtake the Moderate Liberals as the strongest

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1. Last election for bicameral parliament with 151-seat Folketing.
2. First election after constitutional revision of 1952; unicameral parliament with 179 seats instituted. Sent totals do not include two delegates from Greenland and the Faeroe Islands.
3. The Social Democratic government under Jorgensen fell in November 1973, and in the elections (4 December 1973) the five incumbent parties suffered great losses. New parties and seats in parliament are Progress (28), Justice (5), Christian People's (7), Center Democratic (14), and Communist (6). A minority government under Poul Hartling, leader of the Moderate Liberal Party, has been formed.