Denmark: Party Agents on Tight Leashes

Abstract

In this first empirical chapter, we look at Denmark, the Nordic country with the longest-standing EU membership. The Danes joined the European Community (EC) in 1973, alongside Britain and Ireland (but not Norway, which, as we will see later in the book, declined to take up the terms of its accession). Denmark’s involvement in European integration has been far from smooth and unproblematic, however. Of all the Nordic countries, Denmark has easily the widest constitutional provision for direct democracy, and on two separate occasions Danish voters have opted to keep the country outside the most integrated parts of the modern Union. At the same time, the Danish public has been, and still is, split in its views on the EU and, as we will see, this cleavage is important for Danish political life. How has this status vis-à-vis Europe influenced the delegation and accountability that Danish political parties have been able to offer the country’s citizens?