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would eliminate some ministries and reduce the size of others.
The Independents push a "sound" monetary policy, liberalized trade, restraint on taxation and expenditures, and a "Christian way of life." Although willing to abide an "economically sound" social welfare program, the Independents would prefer that primary emphasis be placed on insurance systems. The party supports NATO and recommends increased expenditures to meet the nation's military requirements. After being shut out in 1953 and 1957, its first two electoral ties, the party won six and five seats, respectively, in the 1960 and 1964 elections but fell considerably short of Folketing representation in 1966 and 1968.
d. Liberal Center Party
The number of liberal movements founded in Denmark during the last 100 years exemplifies liberalism's abiding faith in individualism. The latest, the Liberal Center Party, is the frail creation of two former members of parliament, Niels Westerby and Borge Diderichsen. They have proclaimed their party to be a modern, un-doctrinaire liberal party, capable of cooperating with either the political right or left.
In April 1965 Westerby and Diderichsen, two left-wing Moderate Liberals who had lately chosen to support the government in a test of confidence, announced their intention to form a party based on a "liberal renewal in Danish politics." Denouncing the "negative and barren opposition" of the Moderate Liberal and Conservative Parties, they indicated a readiness to support the government's program to curb inflation. The two rebels proceeded in October 1965 to found a party with a domestic policy similar to that of the Radical Liberals and a foreign policy in support of free trade and selective international commitments, including the Nordic Council and the United Nations, but inexplicit concerning the NATO involvement. Under the chairmanship of Prof. Bent Noack the party claimed a membership of 1,200 in 1966. The Liberal Center doubled its parliamentary representation to four seats in 1966, but failed to win a single seat in 1968, and did not present any candidate in 1971.
e. Nascent Progressive Party
In the spring of 1973 an as yet informed splinter party, identified only with its leader Mogens Gilstrup, eight other members, and a locked box allegedly containing some 17,000 signatures of support, caused some consternation among all five parliamentary parties. Analogous to the "Poujadists" in latter day Fourth Republic France, Gilstrup's "Progressives" would eliminate the income tax and reduce the size of the "vast, pervasive, nonproductive" bureaucracy by 90%. Appealing largely to small, independent businessmen and shopkeepers, the as-yet-to-be-organized Progressive Party was garnering a large "protest vote," recent public opinion surveys showing almost a quarter of the respondents supporting it. The phenomenon reflects the persisting doubts concerning the unlimited expansion of social welfare, the responsiveness of existing institutions to valid popular needs and desires, and where the balance lies between the needs of all society and the freedom and rights of the individual.
4. Pressure groups
The multiplicity of established political parties and the ease of advancing a cause through one of them, or of founding a new party for that purpose, are factors which operate against the establishment of large, militant pressure groups. Grievances, both present and anticipated, are readily aired through normal political channels in a nation where the popular welfare is an established ideal. Remedial action is then pursued through compromise rather than confrontation policies. Tensions and ills in the largely homogenous Danish society are minimal in comparison to those of larger, more diverse nations and are not too difficult for the well-developed Danish social consciousness to grasp.
Virtually every major interest group in Danish society is assured of at least one political party of some size and influence to look after its welfare. The Social Democratic Party, while not strictly a labor party, is closely allied with the trade unions, which provide it with a solid base of support. Farmers' interests traditionally have been taken care of by the Moderate Liberal Party. Industrialists, businessmen, and the professional elite look to the Conservatives. Radical reformers of the far left have the Socialist People's Party and the Left Socialist Party; rightists have had the Independent Party.
Only a few groups prefer that their interests not be entrusted to a particular party. One outstanding example, the Danish Women Citizens' Society, was founded in 1871 to gain through its own pressure activity "social and legal equality for the Danish women." Having secured voting, employment, education, and marital rights over the years with relative ease, the society continues to function principally as a watchdog pressure group to see that the law is observed. In 1964 the society rejected a proposal that it transform itself into a political party.
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