糖果派对

By Mikkel Gudsøe, Adjunct Associate Professor at Aarhus University and PhD student in Political Negotiation at the Department of Law, University of Southern Denmark

“It’s a farce. We’re down in the Folketing chamber, one spokesperson after another pretending they know what they’re doing – but the truth is, none of us actually knows what we’re signing off on.”

That’s what Rasmus Jarlov, former Minister for Industry, Business and Financial Affairs and current Vice Chairman of the Conservative Party’s parliamentary group, said in an interview on Radio4, 10 May 2024.

King Valdemar the Victorious put it simply back in 1241: By law shall the land be built.

And surely we all want the best Denmark possible – which means the best foundation and, not least, the best “building blocks” to go with it. Laws that are well thought-out, easy to understand and do what they’re meant to do.

Let’s go back to the experienced parliamentary politician Rasmus Jarlov, who went on to say in the same radio programme:

“But we’ve completely given up. I mean, we’re passing rules – take tax law, which I know pretty well as a tax spokesperson – and the truth is, we, the spokespeople in the chamber, have no idea what we’re actually voting on.

We’ve simply given up, and we make rules that are so complicated that we don’t even understand them ourselves. And the Tax Agency specialists don’t understand them either. The very people meant to enforce the rules don’t know how they work.”

That should set alarm bells ringing for all of us. Because this can’t – and mustn’t – go on.

From Poul Schlüter to Mette Frederiksen, politicians have all claimed that Denmark has too many laws and regulations and that the number should be cut down. Yet, in reality, the word count of our laws has ballooned from roughly 7 million words in 1989 to over 21 million in 2021.

In 2021, the Folketing even passed a “code for good negotiation” to acknowledge that the way things are done doesn’t always lead to good lawmaking.

Then, in 2022, the book Pissedårlig politik (“Crap Politics”) came out, in which past and present politicians admitted to many of their own failings – including the fact that some of our laws just aren’t good enough. In fact, some of them are downright crap.

One politician, eleven spokesperson roles

With more parties in parliament, some claim our democracy is better for its “diversity”. But is it really? Isn’t the real problem that more parties mean smaller groups – and that these small groups have to divide up 40+ spokesperson roles between them, making things weaker, not stronger?

Take Mikkel Bjørn from the Danish People’s Party. He’s the spokesperson for eleven different areas: sports, home affairs, citizenship, church affairs, local government, the monarchy, culture, equality, the media, Denmark’s German minority, and Nordic cooperation. On top of that, he chairs the Naturalisation Committee and sits on eight other committees and councils.

Is it reasonable to think that someone with that many roles can genuinely take an interest in, prepare for, and negotiate on all of them with the same level of care as someone handling just one to three areas, as is more common in the bigger parties? For instance, Mogens Jensen from the Social Democrats only has three spokesperson roles: sport, culture and media. Meanwhile, in the last parliamentary term, Torsten Gejl from the Alternative Party was responsible for all 42 of his party’s spokesperson roles.

Justitia’s report

On 15 July 2024, the independent judicial think-tank Justitia published a thought-provoking report called “Challenges in the Legislative Process”. It highlighted some key concerns:

MPs in the Folketing are under pressure from the volume of work and the speed at which laws are passed.

The quality of lawmaking has suffered, with bills being rushed through and MPs spending less time reading the proposals and supporting documents before voting.

There’s a lack of influence and transparency, as more and more of the legislative process now happens outside the chamber and committee meetings.

MPs in the Folketing lack resources and expertise, especially since smaller parties receive less funding to build an organisation with political and specialist advisers who can support the party’s politicians in their daily work of assessing and preparing for lawmaking negotiations.

A third of the Folketing (64 out of 179 MPs) were newly elected in 2022 – the second-largest intake in history, after 2011 and the “earthquake election” of 1973. Many of them have had little training in how parliament works.

There are also issues with consultation processes, the role of civil servants, and the handling of laws on digitalisation and technology, which are complex and loosely managed.

By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail – Benjamin Franklin

As Justitia’s report, the politicians’ own book, “Crap Politics”, and Rasmus Jarlov’s words show, something has to change, both in how laws are negotiated and in how politicians are trained for the job.

Denmark deserves politicians who are fit for office – and they deserve it too, given the responsibility they take on. They need time to prepare, the means to understand what they’re voting on, and the skills to negotiate effectively – for their own benefit and for what ultimately matters: the Danish people and Denmark.

Light ahead

On 13 June 2024, all parties in the Danish Parliament – through their representatives in the Standing Orders Committee – agreed to give MPs more time to review bills before voting. The move was spearheaded by Speaker Søren Gade, in response to worsening working conditions among the politicians. That’s a good thing. It’s good for MPs and good for Denmark. Is it enough? As Justitia’s report shows, time pressure is only one of many problems – but it’s a step in the right direction.

My own research into political negotiations looks at both MPs’ negotiation skills and the wider processes involved. The aim is to see if we can make things better – both for politicians and for democracy.

The Danish version of this article was published in Jysk Fynske Mediers Erhverv+ on Friday 16 August 2024.