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 APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R000200110016-6

Politicians tend to view most issues as if through bifocals: one lens bringing into sharpest focus their party's history and tradition, the other lends revealing most clear the needs of present day political pragmatism. Since the latter imperatives often taken priority, the non-doctrinaire centrist parties tend to cooperate on policy formulation. They may often find themselves in more of a friendly enemy relationship than one of ideological arch foes.

a. Social Democratic Party

The Social Democratic Party (SDP) has been the strongest single force in Danish politics since the latter 1920s, but it has never had an absolute majority in the Folketing. During its several long tenures as the national government, therefore, it frequently depended on the support of lesser parties for its continuance in power. The SDP has espoused a non-doctrinaire, moderately leftist political philosophy, and although not strictly a labor party, it still enjoys powerful support from the industrial workers. In 1973, as only a single vote holds the balance in parliament and determines that the Socialist bloc has power, some SDP spokesmen urge an accelerated pace for the imposition of economic democracy so as to win votes from the far left. Over the long haul, however, change will continue to be gradual, regardless of the outcome of the election. The SDP leadership appears to recognize that the moneymaking propensities of the entrepreneurs, hence the profit motive, must be maintained to finance the costly welfare system.

At its inception in 1871 the Social Democratic Party represented Marxist socialism. Some of its leaders had participated in the First Internationale in 1864. As Danish life improved, the sharp edges of Marxist doctrine were eroded, and by 1913, with the adoption of the first broad Danish Social Democratic program, strong threats of pragmatism began showing through the party's well-worn red trappings. Sounding a rather uncertain trumpet, the 1913 platform called for nationalization of the means of production when this was in the national interest. Once in power, however, from the mid-1920s forward, the SDP directed relatively little effort toward bringing private manufacturing and merchandising into the public sphere. Instead, the now flourishing private cooperatives - a Danish "first" - continued to be encouraged as the most effective brake on monopolistic practices. Finally, in 1961, the party's platform was forthrightly amended to disavow nationalization as a major goal, stating that the community must acknowledge the right of both private and public ownership.

The Social Democratic Party during the early radical years scored few successes. The party first participated in parliamentary elections in 1872 but remained unrepresented in the Folketing until 1884. By 1895 it had only 8 seats; by 1901, 14; and by 1906, 24. The SDP's increasing strength in the early years of the 20th century was directly related to the extension of the vote to the working classes. With the advent of complete universal suffrage in 1918, the Social Democrats won 39 seats in the national elections of that year. Only in 1924, however, did the party overtake the Moderate Liberals as the strongest

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APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R000200110016-6