| Summary: | Denmark is the only country that is participating in the European
Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM-II), but intending to stay out of the European
Monetary Union (EMU). The country meets all of the criteria for membership in
the euro, is denying itself the potential benefits, political and economic, of full
membership, yet has effectively surrendered control over its own monetary
policy. This "halfway" policy is not easy to explain according to many academic
approaches, including small state theory, realist politics, and liberal economics.
Academics have attempted to explain the reasons for the rejection of the
euro, breaking down into four main theories, three of which focus on the
referendum results which led to the Danish public's rejection of the euro. They
are, "Second Order" theories, which explain the referendum outcomes as
tangential to the population's actual feelings on E M U or European integration;
"Values Oriented" theories which explain the results based on the values and
beliefs of the Danish electorate; "Utilitarian" theories which explain the rejections
from a self-interested, utilitarian assessment of voting patterns. And a fourth
school sees the referendum results as red herrings, believing that deeper
structural or economic factors have shaped the country's policy.
This paper attempts to form a synthesis of the first three schools,
extrapolating on the "Values Oriented" theories, to explain the popular rejection,
but elite support for EMU. The historical cultural argument, which has been
developed in the historical field, and has been used with regard to some other
areas of Danish euroscepticism, explains the contradiction. Ultimately, the
Danish no-votes, and abstention from full participation in the E M U stem from
the deeply rooted Danish political traditions of Grundtvigian egalitarian
smallness and anti-elitism. The ambivalence, and apparent contradiction of the
"half-in" policy stems from the eroding importance of these political traditions as
a result of globalization and europeanization, as the political elite embraced the
European project. This break down of political traditions represents the first
significant shift in Danish political culture since the Second World War. === Arts, Faculty of === Central Eastern Northern European Studies, Department of === Graduate
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