Denmark: The politics of compromise and minority government governance

Coalition Government as a Reflection of a Nation’s Politics and Society : A Comparative Study of Parliamentary Parties and Cabinets in 12 Countries
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pp. 147-163
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Abingdon
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Routledge
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2020,

Florczak, Christoffer, Robert Klemmensen, Matt Evans
ISBN: 978-1-138-39211-3 (print), 978-0-429-42237-9 (online)
Abstract

Denmark’s cultural and linguistic homogeneity is reflected in its highly proportional electoral system and governing institutions that are designed for consensual power sharing. Governments are formed according to the principle of negative parliamentarism which does not require a majority of parliament supporting a government, as long as there is not a majority opposing it. As a result of this system, Denmark has the highest occurrence of minority governments in the world. The main political divide in Denmark has traditionally been redistribution, often labelled the economic dimension of politics. Recently, however, the country has seen a trend felt throughout Europe according to which immigration has played an increasingly important role in political competition. Hence party competition in Denmark is increasingly two dimensional as the dimension of new politics has evolved.