Overview

The Oxford Handbook of Danish Politics provides the most comprehensive and thorough English language book on Danish politics ever written. It features chapters by 50 leading experts who have contributed extensively to the field they write about. Why is Denmark an interesting topic for a Handbook? In some respects, Danish political institutions and political life are very similar to that of other small, North European countries such as the other Scandinavian countries and Netherland. However, in other respects, Danish politics is interesting in its own right. For instance, Denmark has a world record in minority governments. According to standard scholarly knowledge, this should result in unstable governments and a bad economy. This is not the case, however, since Denmark has a rather stable political system and a strong and robust economy among the strongest in Europe. How? The Danes have continued reservations towards the EU despite close to 50 years of EC/EU membership, and the Danes rejected the Maastricht Treaty in 1992. Still, the EU issue is handled in ways that do not call for large political battles. How? A third example is that Denmark used to be known as a tolerant and liberal society; its Jews were almost all saved during German occupation during WWII, Denmark was the first country to free pornography, and the first country to formally register same-sex couples. Yet recent Danish politics has also been associated with xenophobia and anti-Muslim sentiments. Why?

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9780198833598

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Overall, this work is comprehensive...Outsiders looking for hope that democratic societies can perform well still have every reason to look to Denmark and the other Nordic countries, which provide further evidence that the long-term prospects for liberal democracy are best in social democratic polities and societies. * Eric S. Einhorn, Scandinavian Studies *

Author Information

Peter Munk Christiansen is Professor in the Department of Political Science, Aarhus University. He is the author of a large number of books, including textbooks, as well as a large number of contributions to edited books and articles in peer reviewed journals. His recent articles have been published in Nature Human Behaviour, Journal of Public Policy, Journal of European Public Policy, Public Administration, West European Politics, and Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory. Jørgen Elklit is Professor in the Department of Political Science, Aarhus University. His professional interests are elections and electoral systems, political parties, Danish politics, and democratization. He has published widely and also been active as an editor in these areas. Professor Elklit has also been active as an election and democratization expert and advisor since the early 1990s in more than 20 countries, including South Africa, Nepal, Kenya, Lesotho, Tanzania, China, and his native Denmark. Peter Nedergaard is Professor in the department of Political Science, University of Copenhagen. He is the author of a large number of books, including textbooks and edited volumes. He has published articles in the journals JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies, Journal of European Public Policy, Journal of European Integration, Cooperation & Conflict, German Politics, and Scandinavian Political Studies. He is also the editor of the forthcoming edited volume on Ordoliberalism published by OUP.

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