Danish Elite Attitudes Towards European Integration1
| Date | 01 June 1976 |
| Published date | 01 June 1976 |
| Author | Carsten Lehmann Sørensen |
| DOI | 10.1177/001083677601100207 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Danish
Elite
Attitudes
Towards
European
Integration
1
CARSTEN
LEHMANN
SØRENSEN
Institute
of
Political
Science,
University
of
Aarhus
Sørensen,
C.
L.
Danish
Elite
Attitudes
Towards
European
Integration.
Cooperation
and
Conflict,
XI,
1976,
259-278.
During
the
months
preceding
the
Danish
EC
referendum
in
1972,
90
persons
consti-
tuting
the
very
top
of
the
political
elite
were
interviewed.
Categorized
in
four
sub-
elites -
the
parliamentary,
administrative, organization
and
communications
elites -
this
highest
layer
of
the
Danish
political
system
is
portrayed
with
respect
to
social
background
and
other
potentially
important
characteristics.
Elite
attitudes
towards
EC
membership
and
European
integration
in
general
showed
a
pro-European
con-
sensus
motivated
by
economic
considerations.
Social
and
political
integration
were
also
viewed
with
sympathy,
provided
the
extent
of
social
integration
remained
limited,
and
provided
political
integration
excluded
security
policy.
Only
elite
attitudes
towards
the
supranational
EC
institutions
revealed
cleavages
and
ambiguity.
More
than
anything
else,
Danish
elite
attitudes
seemed
to
be
determined
by
a
small
state’s
overall
depen-
dence
on
the
surrounding
European
system
both
in
an
economic
and
political
sense.
Carsten
Lehmann
Sørensen,
Institute
of
Political
Science,
University
of
Aarhus.
I.
INTRODUCTION
In
the
Danish
referendum
on
2
October
1972
no
less
than
90
per
cent
of
all
voters
participated;
63
per
cent
said
’yes’
to
Danish
membership
of the
European
Communities
(EC),
and
37
per
cent
were
against.
During
the
months
preceding
the
referendum
90
persons
constituting
the
very
top
of
the
Danish
political
elite
were
interviewed.
The
intention
was
to
get
a
detailed
picture
of
elite
attitudes
towards
European
integration
in
general
as
well
as
towards
various
aspects
of
economic,
social,
political
and
institutional
integra-
tion
then
and
in
the
future.
The
homo-
geneity
of
attitudes
was
apparent
from
the
very
beginning,
as
90
per
cent
of
those
interviewed
were
in
favour
of
Dan-
ish
EC
membership
and
only
10
per
cent
against
or
still
in
doubt.
This
article
is
a
study
of
elite
attitudes
only,
the
relevance
of
which
is
based
on
the
assumption
of
a
strong
correlation
between
the
EC
policy
of
a
small
state
like
Denmark
and
the
corresponding
elite
attitudes.2
If
the
main
theme
were
the
formulation
of
Danish
EC
policy
and
especially
the
decision
to
joint
the
EC,
elite
attitudes
would
of
course
be
more
of
an
intervening
variable.
One
group
of
independent
or
deter-
mining
variables
normally
used
in
elite
studies
is
social
background
and
related
characteristics,
because
we
can
infer
from
such
variables
a
good
deal
about
the
homogeneity
and
dominant
values
of
a
political
system,
about
elite-elite
relation-
ships
and
about
elite-mass
relationships.3
In
this
article
background
variables
will
be
used
to
characterize
the
Danish
elite,
and
the
assumption
that
elite
attitudes
are
related
to
social
background
and
such
other
factors
will
be
tested.
Of
course,
cleavages
or
consensus
in
elite
attitudes
can
never
fully
be
explained
by
reference
to
an
arbitrary
number
of
background
variables.4
The
political
con-
text
at
home
and
abroad
must
also
be
considered
and,
as
this
article
is
not
a
study
of
foreign
policy
making,
only
the
main
problems
and
trends
in
Danish
EC
policy
will
be
discussed.
Since
the
fifties
the
main
characteristic
of
Denmark’s
EC
policy
has
been
the
260
very
prominent
status
given
to
the
eco-
nomic
aspects.5
Danish
politicians
have
attempted
to
obtain
the
greatest
possible
economic
advantages,
whilst
at
the
same
time
preserving
as
much
freedom
of
action
as
possible.
The
strong
emphasis
on
economic
elements
is
due
to
several
factors.
First,
the
commercial
and
export
struc-
tures
have
created
complicated
problems
for
Danish
market
policy,
given
that
the
most
important
export
markets
for
agri-
culture
are
in
Great
Britain
and
on
the
Continent,
while
those
for
industry
are
in
the
other
Scandinavian
countries.
In
addition,
strong
Anglo-Scandinavian
ties
and
affinities
made
EC
membership
con-
tingent
upon
several
conditions.
Ever
since
the
first
Danish
application
for
membership
in
1961,
it
was
a
clear
con-
dition
that
Denmark
should
only
become
a
member
concurrently
with
Britain,
and
that
the
relationship
of
the
Scandinavian
countries
with
the
EC
was
to
be
solved
in
a
satisfactory
manner,
either
by
mem-
bership
or
by
special
free
trade
agree-
ments.
This
solution
would
mean
maxi-
mum
economic
advantages
for
Denmark
as
an
EC
member,
and
not
least
it
would
make
membership
politically
more
ac-
ceptable.6
Second,
the
dominant
feature
of
the
national
economy
has
been
a
constant
struggle
to
achieve
or
maintain
full
em-
ployment
and
economic
growth
on
the
one
hand
and
a
favourable
balance
of
payments
on
external
trade
on
the
other.
As
the
pro-marketeers
saw
it,
EC
mem-
bership
and
the
ensuing
economic
ad-
vantages
could
provide
a
solution
to
the
internal
economic
problems.
During
the
increasingly
intense
campaign
leading
up
to
the
referendum
the
pro-marketeers
therefore
stressed
the
economic
benefits,
while
the
discussion
of
the
political
per-
spectives
of
joining
the
EC
was
held
on
the
premises
of
the
anti-marketeers.
Third,
the
small
state
aspect
is
a
sig-
nificant
element
in,
the
making
of
Danish
EC
policy.
Denmark
is
economically
very
vulnerable
because
of
highly
specialized
trade
in
both
products
and
markets,
and
because
foreign
trade
plays
an
excep-
tionally
important
role
in
the
total
econ-
omy.
In
a
small
country
like
Denmark,
which
has
reached
high
levels
of
indus-
trialization,
per
capita
income,
social
welfare,
etc.,
elite
attitudes
in
general
would
tend
to
be
gradualistic,
moderate
and
pragmatic.’
On
issues
such
as
market
policy,
foreign
policy
and
especially
membership
of
the
EC,
we
may
therefore
expect
to
find
a
high
degree
of
consensus
and
open-mindedness
in
view
of
Den-
mark’s
dependence
on
the
surrounding
international
system.8
II.
DEFINITION
OF
THE
DANISH
FOREIGN
POLICY
ELITE
The
problem
of
defining
the
Danish
for-
eign
policy
elite
for
purpose
of
the
present
study
had
for
a
variety
of
reasons
to
be
solved
in
a
very
pragmatic
manner.
Until
the
start
of
data
collection
for
this
project,
no
other
research
had
been
undertaken
as
to
the
structure
and
be-
haviour
of
the
Danish
political
elite.
The
only
exception
from
this
general
state of
affairs
was
some
research
on
parliamen-
tary
behaviour
and
patterns
of
recruit-
ment
to
the
Folketing,
but
this
research
had
only
limited
relevance
to
the
study.9
Therefore,
there
was
no
support
to
be
found
in
previous
research
and
in
fact
also
very
little
in
studies
of
political
elites
in
other
European
countries.10
However,
after
the
Government
had
announced
its
intention
to
organize
a
referendum,
the
problem
of
joining
the
EC
could
no
longer
be
categorized
as
a
normal
foreign
policy
issue.
The
general
political,
social
and
economic
importance
of _ the
European
issue
took
on
such
dimensions
that
it
ceased
to
be
an
issue
handled
functionally
by
the
specialized
-
but
probably
politically
peripheral -
circles
of
the
Folketing
and
the
Ministry
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