PETITIONER, ADRESSER OG DEMOKRATI I DANMARK 1835-1899

Resumé

“PETITIONS AND DEMOCRACY IN DENMARK 1835-1899”

“Petitions and democracy in Denmark 1835-1899” examines the use of petitions by the Danish population in the 19th century. It does so on the basis of a database recording of 218 major petitions where civic groups have turned to political institutions, such as parliament and the king, with their collective claims and opinions towards various societal issues. One purpose of the study is a pure exploratory mapping of: what issues has preoccupied the Danes, when and with what amount of support. A second purpose is to investigate the interaction between popular collective claim-making and state authorities in the crucial period of early Danish democratization. As one of the key findings, the study invalidates any imagination of a united, uniform population, as the 19th century Danes apparently disputed and struggled on numerous issues including fundamental questions of democracy and war. Yet the study also shows how the petition-institution helped to develop and consolidate democracy in breadth and in depth. In breadth by mobilizing the population to the effective political participation, that belongs to a modern democracy, and in depth by establishing a channel for dialogue between people and state, which contributed to smoothen democratic governance.