1. DENMARK

2. MAP OF DENMARK 3. POLITICAL HISTORY Viking Age During the Viking Age, c. 800-1100, a strong royal power developed, as is demonstrated forinstance by several strategically placed circular fortresses of impressive size. 1015-1034 England under Danish rule The Kalmar Union The main political event of the period was the establishment of the Kalmar Union in1397, combining Denmark, Norway and Sweden in a personal union under the Danish QueenMargrete I Absolutism In 1660-1661, by coup-like means, the old elective monarchy dominated by the aristocracy wasreplaced by a hereditary monarchy. The new hereditary king, Frederik III, and his successorsgained absolute power. Democracy and the Schleswig Issue As the national movements developed, the duchies position within the monarchy became a keyissue until 1864. Almost a third of the nations population was German. 4. Abolition of Absolutism and First liberal constitution Frederik VII declaring himself constitutional king, thereby paving the way for a democratic constitution which was codified in The Constitution of the Kingdom of Denmark of 5 June 1849. The ceding of the duchies In 1863, the Danish parliament passed the November Constitution which in practice separated Holstein and Lauenburg from the kingdom while incorporating Schleswig, This triggered a war with Germany and the outcome was a humiliating Danish defeat in 1864 and the ceding of all three duchies The Hope of Regeneration With the loss of the duchies, Denmark had become smaller than ever. From this nadir the work of national regeneration started with the motto outward losses must be compensated by inward gains Neutrality and Occupation Denmark remained neutral during World War I Hitler seized power in Germany in 1933. On 9 April 1940, German troops peacefully occupied Denmark. Unicameral From 1849 to 1953 the Folketing was one of the two houses in the bicameral parliament known as the Rigsdag; the other house was known as the Landsting. n 1953 the people by popular vote adopted a revised constitution. Among the changes was 5. FACTS ABOUT DENMARK Population: 5.564.219 (2011)Area: 43.098 square kilometersGross domestic product: DKK 1.656 billion (2009)Capital: Copenhagen 1.702.388 (2011)Language: DanishReligion: Danish National Evangelical Lutheran Church 80.7%,Currency: Danish Kroner, DKK. 1 Krone = 100 re (5.3 DKK = 1USD, 2011)Member of: UN, OECD, EU, Nato, Schengen, OSCE, IMF, WTO andothers 6. Introduction toDanish democracy 7. GOVERNMENT The Kingdom of Denmark has two autonomous provinces, FaroeIslands and Greenland. Government: Constitutional monarchy Follows a multi-party system Constitution: June 5, 1953 Executive: Head of the State Queen Margrethe II Head of Government Statsminister Helle Thorning-Schmidt (Social Democrat) Cabinet Ministers Legislative: Unicameral Parliament Folketing 8. Judiciary: Election Every 4 years; Supreme CourtProportional Representation Two high courts Voting age is at least 18 years Seceral special courts old. Election participation is 80-85 24 local courts percent Political Parties: Venstre (Liberal) Administrative region: Social Democratic Danish Peoples Hovedstaden Social Liberal Midtjylland Socialist Peoples Nordjylland Unity List Sjlland Liberal Alliance Syddanmark Conservative 9. QUEEN MARGRETHE II Head of the State Official representative ofDenmark Purely ceremonial power No political power 10. Statsminister Helle Thorning-Schmidt First Female Statsminister (Prime Minister) Elected in October 2011 From the Social Democrat Party Has been leader of the Danish Social Democrats since April 2005 Served as a Member of the European Parliament from 1999 to 2004 11. FOLKETING 179 seats 135 seats fromconstituencies, 40 supplementaryseats, and two from Faroe Islands andanother two from Greenland The Danish electoral system comprises athreshold rule which means that partieswhich obtain less than 2 per cent of thevalid votes cast do not have a share in thesupplementary seats. 12. Party%SeatsLiberals (B)24.8% 47 Social Democrats (R) 12.3% 44Danish Peoples Party (B) 9.5%22Social Liberal Party (R)9.2%17Socialist Peoples Party (R)6.7%16Red-Green Alliance (R)5.0%12Liberal Alliance (B)4.9%9Conservative Peoples Party(B)0.8%8 Christian Democrats (B)0.1%0Red Alliance (R) Helle Thorning-Schmidt 50.2%Blue Alliance (B)Lars Lkke Rasmussen 49.8% 13. JUDICIAL SYSTEM SUPREME COURT (Hjesteret)SPECIAL COURTSThe High Court of WesternThe High Court ofDenmark (Vestre Landsret) Eastern Denmark (stre Landsret) 24 LOCAL COURTS 14. ECONOMY Denmarks economy mainly focused on its human resources. It has Europes most flexible market Denmark has a highly developed welfare safety net, which ensuresthat all Danes receive free health care and social benefits. The large public sector (30% of the entire workforce work for thestate) is financed by the one of the worlds highest taxes. A ValueAdded Tax of 25% is levied on the sale of most goods and services(including groceries). The income tax in Denmark ranges from 42%to 63% progressively. With its economy open to global trade and investment, Denmarkbenefits from high degrees of business freedom, investmentfreedom, and financial freedom. 15. THE DANISH MODEL Flexicurity Compound words of flexible and security Golden TriangleFlexibleSecurityActive Labour Market Flexible rules for hiring and firing easy for employers todismiss employees during downturns and hire new staff whenthings improve Unemployment security in the form of a guarantee for a legallyspecified unemployment benefit at a relatively high level upto 90% for the lowest paid workers. Labour Market Policy - An effective system is in place to offerguidance, a job or education to all unemployed. 16. TRADITION Not one but two National Anthems1. Der er et yndigt land (There is a lovely land) is the civil national anthem of Denmark.2. The other, Kong Christian stod ved hjen mast (King Christian stood by the lofty mast) has equal status but is mainly used for royal and military occasions. 17. LIFESTYLE Sustainable City Mayors, town planners and politicians from all over the world have visited Copenhagen often in recent years to study its bicycle traffic, district heating system or its waste management. 18. GREENLIFE Danish Biking CultureCopenhagen is world famous for its biking cultureand now officially the first Bike City in the World.Last year, it was also voted the Best city forcyclists and the Worlds most livable city. It reallyis biking heaven for the cyclist in Copenhagenwith over 390 kilometers of designated bikelanes. 19. INTERESTING FACTS ABOUTDENMARK Faroe Islands used to belong to Norway, but not any more - Norwaylost the islands after the King of Norway has lost drunken pokergame with King of Denmark. In 1989 Denmark become the very first European country tolegalize same-sex marriages and offer for gay partnership the samerights as for heterosexual couples. Copenhagens Tivoli amusement park is one of biggest and popularin Europe. Actually it is one of the oldest amusement parks in theworld. Among other things Danish people have invented the widelyknown children playthings LEGO. Most Famous Danes is writer Hans Christian Andersen, whosefairy tales have been translated into more languages then anyother book in the whole world 20. DENMARK AND THE EU Since joining the EEC/EU in 1973 after a referendum where 63.3%voted in favour of membership,. Denmark has worked for transparency in the EU decision-making, the inclusion of environmental concerns in alldecisions, the creation of more jobs in Europe and the opening upof the EU to, among others, Central and Eastern Europe so that itdoes not become a club for the rich. With more than 1000 UN employees, Copenhagen is the worldssixth largest UN city. On the 9th of November, Danish Minister for DevelopmentCooperation will cut the first sod for the new UN building that willbring together all UN staff members in the Danish capital under thesame roof. Faroe Islands and Greenland is not included in the EU