Abstract
The Danish national identity was created when Danes were the master class in a large supra-national empire extending from northern Germany of today, through swaths of southern Sweden and including both Norway and the islands in the north west Atlantic.
Shrinking in a short period of time to a small nation-state confined to the smallest piece of land of the Nordics has been traumatic to the Danish national identity. I maintain that key to understanding harsh immigrant politics in Denmark is found the country’s history.
The relatively broad consensus of the culturally open Danish society based on wide scale public welfare was first challenged in the early 1970s when Mogens Glistrup founded his protest party, the Progress Party (Fremskridtspartiet, PP). Since then, Danish politics were permanently altered. Though Front National in France inspired the Progress Party, the Danish version was initially rather focused on campaigning against high taxes before turning more aggressively anti-immigrant. The rise of xenophobia was in stark contradiction to Denmark’s liberal reputation of tolerance.
After the PP ran into trouble, Ms Pia Kjærsgaard founded the Danish People’s Party (Dansk Folkeparti) in 1993, which was to become one of the most successful right-wing populist parties in Europe. The key to Kjærsgaard’s success was in being able to polish off the rough demagogue’s image of the PP while keeping its anti-establishment credentials. Its policies were also retuned away from the anti-tax rhetoric and geared against multiculturalism and immigration, while emphasising protecting the welfare state from being ruined by foreign infiltrators.
Initially its policies were widely condemned by almost the entire Danish political class as well as the media for being openly racist. Gradually the DPP was able to move in from the fringe and become one of the most influential in the country. In only two decades, the party found way into a central position of power—by changing the political discourse of the country, rather than altering much their own political message. As a result, nationalist sentiments and opposition to multiculturalism gradually became one of the main pillars of Danish politics.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Andersen, J. G. (2004). The Danish people’s Party and new cleavages in Danish politics. Working paper, Centre for comparative welfare studies, Aalborg University. Retrieved from http://vbn.aau.dk
Bachler, C. M., & Hopmann, D. N. (2015). Denmark (Unpublished Working Paper). Cost network on Populist Political Communication, Odense.
Booth, M. (2014). The almost nearly perfect people: The truth about the nordic miracle. London: Jonathan Cabe.
Boréus, K. (2010). Including or excluding immigrants? The impact of right-wing populism in Denmark and Sweden. Diversity, inclusion and citizenship in Scandinavia, 127–158.
Einhorn, E. S. (1975). The reluctant ally: Danish security policy 1945–49. Journal of Contemporary History, 493–512.
Espersen, S. (2015). DF om krigen mod IS: Vi bliver nødt til at bombe civile nu—også kvinder og børn. Retrieved from http://politik.tv2.dk
Etting, V. (2009). Margrete den første: En regent og hendes samtid. Gyldendal.
Feldbæk, O. (1991). Fedreland og indfødsret. 1700-tallets danske identitet. Feldb\a Ek I.
Gad, U. P. (2014). Greenland: A post-Danish sovereign nation state in the making. Cooperation and Conflict, 49(March 2013), 98–118.
Griffiths, T. (2004). Scandinavia at war with trolls—A history from the Napolenic era to the third millennium. London: Hurst and company.
Gundelach, P. (1988). Sociale bevægelser og samfundsændringer: nye sociale grupperinger og deres organisationsformer ved overgangen til ændrede samfundstyper. AArhus: Politica.
Hansen, L. (2002). Sustaining sovereignty: The Danish approach to Europe. InEuropean integration and national identity. The challenge of the Nordic states (pp. 50–88). London and New York: Routledge.
Henkel, H. (2010). Fundamentally Danish?: The muhammad cartoon crisis as transitional drama. Human Architecture: Journal of the Sociology of Self-Knowledge, 8(2), 8.
Huntington, S. P. (1993). The third wave: Democratization in the late twentieth century (Vol. 4). University of Oklahoma press.
Hussain, M. (2000). Islam, media and minorities in Denmark. Current Sociology, 48(4), 95–116. doi:10.1177/0011392100048004008.
Jenkins, R. (2011). Being Danish: Paradoxes of identity in everyday life. Museum Tusculanum Press.
Jespersen, K. (2002). No small achievement: Special operations executive and the Danish resistance 1940–1945. Odense: University Press of Southern Denmark.
Jupskås, A. R. (2015). Institutionalized right-wing populism in times of economic crisis: A comparative study of the Norwegian Progress Party and the Danish people’s Party. InEuropean Populism in the shadow of the great recession. Colchester: ECPR Press.
Kierkegaard, S. (1844). Either/or. (Vol. 1), (D. Swenson & L. Swenson, Trans.). Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company.
Kitschelt, H., & McGann, A. J. (1997). The radical right in Western Europe: A comparative analysis. University of Michigan Press.
Klages, E. P. (2003). Populisme eller hvad? Politica, 35(4), 402–412.
Klein, A. (2013). The end of solidarity? On the development of right-wing popluist parties in Denmark and Sweden. In Expoising the demagogues: Right-wing and national populist parties in Europe. Berlin: Konrad Adenauer Stiftung.
Lidegaard, B. (2003). Dansk udenrigspolitiks historie: Overleveren 1914–1945 (Vol. 4). Danmarks nationalleksikon.
Lindström, U. (1985). Fascisim in Scanidnavia 1920–1940. Lund: Almqvist & Wiksell International.
Moi, T. (2006). Henrik Ibsen and the birth of modernism: Art, theater, philosophy. Oxford University Press.
Mouritsen, P., & Olsen, T. V. (2013). Denmark between liberalism and nationalism. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 36(4), 691–710.
Østergard, U. (2002). The state of Denmark—Territory and nation. Comparare. Comparative European History Review, 2002, 200–219.
Princippprogram. (2002). Dansk Folkeparti. Retrieved from http://www.danskfolkeparti.dk/Principprogram
Ravn, O. (2007). Foerer uden folk: Frits Clausen og Danmarks national socialistiske arbejder-parti (Vol. 354). Syddansk Universitetsforlag.
Ringsmose, J. (2006). Fra protest til indflydelse: Organisatoriske forskelle mellem Fremskridtspartiet og Dansk Folkeparti. Tidsskriftet Politik, 68–78.
Roemer, J. E., & Van der Straeten, K. (2004). The political economy of xenophobia and distribution: The case of Denmark. Laboratoire d’Econométrie de l'Ecole polytechnique. Working Paper 2004–03.
Rydgren, J. (2010). Radical right-wing populism in Denmark and Sweden: Explaining party system change and stability. SAIS Review of International Affairs, 30(1), 57–71.
Rystrom, P. (2002). Nar strategi bliver til politisk kommunikation—En analyse af folketingsvalget 2001. Politologiske Studier, 5, 3–16.
Sandemose, A. (1933). Janteloven (The Jante Law): The Danish mentality? From: A refugee crosses his tracks.
Schou, S. (1981). De danske Østfront-frivillige. Suenson.
Sommer, N., & Aagaard, S. (2003). Succes: Historien om Pia Kj\a ersgaard. Lindhardt og Ringhof.
Stainforth, T. (2009). The Danish paradox: Intolerance in the land of perpetual compromise. Review of European and Russian Affairs, 5(1).
Tamilsagen 1986–1995. (n.d.). Retrieved November 17, 2015, from http://danmarkshistorien.dk/leksikon-og-kilder/vis/materiale/tamilsagen-1986-1995/
Widfeldt, A. (2015). Extreme right parties in Scandinavia. New York: Routledge.
Wren, K. (2001). Cultural racism: Something rotten in the state of Denmark? Social & Cultural Geography, 2(2), 141–162.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2017 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Bergmann, E. (2017). Denmark: From Multi-Ethnic and Supra-National Empire to Little Denmark. In: Nordic Nationalism and Right-Wing Populist Politics. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-56703-1_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-56703-1_2
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-137-56702-4
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-56703-1
eBook Packages: Political Science and International StudiesPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)