POLITICS AND ADMINISTRATION

This chapter discusses the party politics, central government, local government, and educational administration of Scandinavia. As far as social security and state action in economic affairs are concerned, almost all the countries of Western Europe have since 1945 accepted that the State must play a much larger part in the direction of these affairs. In Norway, the Labor party is the main political party and puts forward policies similar to those already described in the manifesto of the Danish Social Democrats. After 24 years in office, the Labor Government was defeated in 1963, on a censure motion about the management of state-owned industries. Denmark has 25 county authorities further subdivided into 1,300 rural districts. Copenhagen is controlled by an elected town council, which appoints an executive of the chief mayor, five other mayors, and five aldermen for day-to-day administration.