APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R000200110016-6
Krag and his several Socialist predecessors traditionally looked right, to the left-wing of the Danish liberal movement, as represented by the Radical Liberal Party, for the support needed to form a viable government. Following the 1966 election, in which the Social Democrats lost 7 seats and the leftist Socialist People's Party gained 10, Krag turned instead to the SFP and struck an informal alliance whereby Social Democratic sponsored domestic legislation would first be coordinated with the SFP. Krag's seeming shift to the left represented a bow to political pragmatism rather than any evident effort on his part to radicalize Danish social democracy. Krag's shaky quasi-coalition with the SFP lasted 13 months. In December 1967 six of the former followers of Aksel Larsen broke ranks over the continued collaboration of the SFP with the Social Democrats and formed the Left Socialist Party. Nonetheless, when the SDP again assumed the reigns of power in October 1971, it was with the needed parliamentary support of the rump SFP, granted on essentially the same conditions as in 1966. Within the SDP the debate continues regarding the appropriateness of the alliance, in view of SFP opposition to such fundamental Social Democratic external policies as accession to the EC and continued adherence to NATO. Even the pragmatism that first prompted the alliance is now questioned in the light of an apparent shift to the right by the Danish electorate. The moderate political pragmatism that enabled the party to accomplish so much seems pitted against the ideological commitment of those who see in the activist Swedish social democracy an orthodoxy they would wish to have restored to the Danish SDP. Such domestic policies as economic democracy - income leveling, profit sharing, and the participation of labor in management planning - could best be pursued, they feel, by looking to the left for support. Recognizing that welfarism in Denmark approaches saturation and that further taxation for its expansion would be intolerable, the new ideologues are urging instead reforms in the allocation of benefits that would hasten the leveling of incomes.
As of mid-1973, however, despite the SFP alliance and continued internal bickering, the SDP remains attached to relatively moderate, forward looking European social democracy. The party advocates state regulation in industry, agriculture, and commerce for the purpose of achieving maximum production and thereby the highest possible standards of living. The Social Democrats urge that property holdings and incomes be so regulated through price and salary controls, taxation, and social measures as to bring about a more nearly even distribution of national wealth. Full employment, consumer protection, adequate housing, and expanded social services are some of the objectives of their domestic program. No longer the partisans of economic nationalization, they advocate the harmonious coexistence of private enterprise, the cooperative movement, and state enterprise.
In foreign policy and defense matters the Social Democratic Party has altered its position considerably since World War II, abandoning its old platform of neutrality, pacifism, and disarmament in favor of enhanced cooperation among the Scandinavian countries in all fields, economic integration with Western Europe, and staunch support for the United Nations, as well as adherence to regional security pacts until such time as international conditions permit disarmament with adequate controls. The party stands by its 1949 decision to enter NATO, despite the continuing dissent of Socialist left-wingers. The latter element had been partially appeased by the unilateral ban on the presence of foreign troops or nuclear weapons on Danish soil in time of peace. But the SDP's long-standing agreement with its political ally to the left, the SFP, to press for a national plebiscite on the question of NATO membership, was not honored. Instead, in February 1973 the SDP entered into a four party agreement with the Conservatives, the Radical Liberals, and the Moderate Liberals to maintain Denmark's NATO force levels more or less at their present low state through 1977. For more than a decade, largely because of lukewarm Social Democratic support, Danish troop and materiel contributions to NATO have fallen well short of commitment. As a further evidence of its outward-looking stance, the party is pledged to a program of aid to lesser developed countries.
As befits Denmark's largest party, the SDP is closely knit, well-run, and largely self-sustaining. Externally, it cooperates individually with other, particularly European, Socialist parties, and collectively with the Socialist International. Internally, it has close ties to, and to some extent even shares its identity with, the Danish Federation of Trade Unions (LO) and with the Urban Consumer Cooperative Association.
The SDP sponsors evening classes in civic affairs, politics, and practical and academic subjects.
According to the SDP constitution, the national party congress is the most powerful organ. Meeting at least once every 4 years, this body of about 500 voting and some 200 non-voting delegates represents all elements in the party organization. One delegate per 1,000 members is elected from the 120-odd district organizations, and delegates with a somewhat smaller constituency represent the provincial units, trade unions, cooperatives, and party youth. The congress
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APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R000200110016-6
