61 Rethinking local government: Essays on municipal reform - VATT

Local Government in Denmark and the 2007municipal reformThe tension between the two roles for <strong>local</strong> <strong>government</strong>s beganduring the era of absolutist royal rule (1660–1849). In the 1830sthe king established a new <strong>local</strong> <strong>government</strong> system. In the urbanareas Denmark’s approximately eighty market towns were entrustedwith all <strong>local</strong> functions. In the rural areas a two-tiered structurewas established: around 1,100 parish municipalities would handlebasic <strong>local</strong> functions such as primary education and social security,while county councils would be responsible for tasks that required alarger population basis such as hospital services. Although suffrageremained circumscribed, this system contained a rudimentary formof democracy. The market towns, the parish municipalities, and thecounty councils all had elected bodies with some decision-makingcompetence. However, another important purpose of the system,securing implementation of national policies, led to strict centralcontrol. In the market towns the mayor was appointed by the king,in the parish municipalities, the pastor – as the <strong>local</strong> branch of theabsolutist hierarchy – played an important role in schools and socialservices; in the county councils the governor (amtmand) was a central<strong>government</strong> official who possessed wide powers or scrutiny over theparish municipalities (Bundsgaard, 2000).After the end of absolutist rule and the introduction of a democraticconstitution in 1849, the values of <strong>local</strong> self-<strong>government</strong>, democracy,and popular elections gained ground. Restrictions on suffrage weresomewhat eased in the 1850s; the role of the pastor was reduced inthe parish municipalities in the 1860s; in 1908 an electoral reformgave women and servants voting rights in <strong>local</strong> elections andintroduced proportional election at the <strong>local</strong> level; from 1919 mayorsin the market towns were no longer appointed by the king, but electedby the town council; and in the 1930s, the first inter-municipalequalization system was introduced (Dedenroth-Schou et al. 1991).As these examples show, changes did take place, but on a limitedscale. The basic features of the system introduced under absolutistrule remained unchanged until the large-scale reform in 1970.As noted by Page (1991:108–37) in a seven-country comparison,Denmark had, contrary to conventional categorizations, strong traitsof a Napoleonic <strong>local</strong> <strong>government</strong> system until the twentieth century.44