Retsforbundet
| Retsforbundet | |
| Party leader | Collective board |
| Political spokesman | Poul Gerhard Kristiansen |
| founding | October 21, 1919 |
| Place of foundation | Grundtvigs Hus, Copenhagen |
| Alignment | Georgism , liberalism , humanism , EU skepticism |
| Headquarters | Lyngbyvej 42, Copenhagen |
| Youth association | Retsforbundets Ungdom |
| Electoral list | E. |
| retsforbundet.dk | |
Retsforbundet , formerly Danmarks Retsforbund (German also Gerechtigkeitspartei , Gerechtigkeitsbund or "Rechts (ver) bund" ), is a liberal and Georgist Danish party based on the ideas of the social reform economist Henry George . The name literally means legal covenant (not in the meaning of right, but right = legal principle or justice). Since leaving the Folketing in 1981, the party has been a small party .
The background and goals of the party are with the German land reform movement and the free economy of Silvio Gesell comparable.
history
Retsforbundet was founded in 1919. The basic ideas of the party already existed partly in the liberal peasant party Venstre , especially in its social-liberal split-off Radical Venstre (from 1905), in the lively Danish cooperative movement and partly in the social democracy and the folk high school movement .
The party was represented in the Danish Folketing 1926–1960, 1973–1975 and 1977–1981 . 1957-1960 the party took part in the so-called triangular government, a coalition with the social democracy and the radical Venstre (governments HC Hansen II and Viggo Kampmann I ).
Second World War
During the German occupation from 1940–1945, Retsforbundet supported the collection government without participating in the cabinet until this national cooperation policy collapsed after the August 1943 revolt.
After the liberation in 1945, the Reichstag dealt with a retroactive amendment to the law on the punishment of war criminals. MEP Oluf Pedersen from Retsforbundet spoke out vehemently against reintroducing the death penalty. Resistance fighters reacted with anger and threats. On May 30, 1945, the Folketing passed the law with 127 votes, five abstained, including MPs from Retsforbundet and the radical Venstre , and none voted against. (In the Landsting, the draft was adopted with 67 votes against, the Social Democrat and later Landsting President Ingeborg Hansen , with one abstention.)
post war period
In the post-war period, the party grew strongly, among other things as an opponent of the unpopular rationing of goods . In 1949 the party called for a referendum on joining NATO . The party was split on the question; most MPs voted against accession.
In the 1950s it played a certain role as a protest party against state interference, bureaucracy and excessive taxes, with similarities to the later Progress Party , the right-wing anti-tax party founded in 1972. Retsforbundet was assigned more to the bourgeois wing. When, contrary to expectations, the party formed a coalition with the Social Democrats and the radical Venstre in 1957, the electorate reacted with resignation in 1960, although this government made great economic progress. The party's best-known politician in the 1950s was Viggo Starcke .
In 1973 the party was again represented in the Folketing, especially as the only non-socialist opponent of EC membership. In the chaotic political landscape of the 1970s, it was unable to prevail over the long term. In the 1981 election it failed again because of the 2 percent threshold. In 1990 she stood for the last time independently for the Folketing election.
today
Since 1990 the party has run in local and municipal / regional elections. In 1998, a parliamentary group of the party, Retsdemokraterne , took part in the Democratic Fornyelse ("Democratic Renewal") electoral list, which is critical of the EU . In 2002, Retsforbundet, the Danish Greens and Solidarisk Alternativ founded the Grønne Demokrater alliance in an attempt to take part in the Folketing elections, which did not succeed. In the 2005 Folketing election, Retsforbundet put candidates on the list of the Minoritetspartiet . The main hurdle in the electoral process is the collection of around 20,000 voter support, which must be confirmed twice by the voter.
Retsforbundet is a co-founder of the non-partisan Folkebevægelsen mod EU ( popular movement against the EU ). Former party chairman Ib Christensen represented this movement in the European Parliament from 1984 to 1994 ; From 1978 to 1979 he represented Retsforbundet as a member of the indirectly elected European Parliament.
Ideology and politics
The aim of the founding declaration was:
to secure the freedom and rights of the individual against the unlawful encroachments of state power and money power
The designation Forbund ("Bund, Verein") showed in part that they initially did not seek participation in political elections, but also that as a "Bund of free men and women" they appeared as an alternative to the party system divided according to special interests and classes. They wanted to change or fight the reactionary or privileged “four old parties”: the social democracy , the (large) peasant party Venstre , the conservative Folkeparti and the radical Venstre .
Ideological background
Besides Henry George, the party was based on the Danish philosopher Severin Christensen . The basic idea of Georgism is that the result of human work and creativity is to be thanked the human being. Soil and natural assets belong to the whole of humanity, since nobody created them. The progress of society and of creativity develop into land rent , the increase in the value of property. If the landowner takes advantage of his monopoly, he can wrongly confiscate the fruits of the people's labor.
Instead, the party wanted to enforce the full right of man to dispose of his own creation of labor, and at the same time the recognition of the increase in value of landed property as a common good created by society as a whole.
International equivalents
Although Retsforbundet is the only example of a successful Georgist party on a global level, designers such as Leo Tolstoy , Winston Churchill , Albert Einstein and the economists Friedrich August von Hayek and Milton Friedman have also supported the idea in various contexts. Georgist tax policy was u. a. implemented in Singapore and Hong Kong.
In German-speaking countries
There were equivalents within free economics . German organizations that exist today are the Human Economy Party and the Initiative for Natural Economic Order . In Switzerland there was the Swiss Free Trade Union / Liberal Socialist Party .
In Denmark there was contact between Retsforbundet and the cooperative JAK member banks , which, like the German free economy, experimented with free money . In the Retsforbundet party, monetary reforms were not particularly on the agenda.
Land rent and flat tax
While in the first few decades the idea of expropriating property against full compensation was used, a more pragmatic course was later adopted.
In 1948–1954, on the initiative of the party, a state commission was set up which proposed a national property tax of 4% of the property value. The tax could gradually replace other taxes, particularly income tax. If the amount of property tax to be paid were gradually increased until it approached the increase in value (the basic rent ), the purchase price would become lower and lower and eventually reach zero. In practice, private property would gradually turn into a lease, as the annual property tax would in fact be a rent or rent.
As a practical implementation of the goal, a single tax on real estate (and natural goods) should replace all other taxes. According to Retsforbundet, land speculation and "interest slavery" could be abolished this way. First-time buyers of a house or property would not have to take out large loans , as the payment for the use of the property would be made through the annual property tax.
In the early years, the party practically advocated a night watchman state , but it should also include public hospitals and care for the severely disabled. This state should be financed by the sole taxes on property or property appreciation. The vision has been loosened since the 1960s, as the growing welfare state could no longer be financed through a uniform property tax. The party also demanded that the oil and gas reserves extracted since 1972 be used entirely for the benefit of the state and not the private licensee.
Today, the party also defends freely accessible education and student funding through interest-free loans and the maintenance of a reformed social system, but rejects state funding for private business and agriculture as well as cultural funding for theater, film and music (except for libraries).
Other program items
Internationally, global free trade should apply, which would serve both progress and peace. The party is traditionally anti-militarist, a minority even pacifist, but fundamentally supports NATO membership.
Core political demands are a tax reform with a reduction in income and sales taxes, instead taxation of property and the use of natural resources, preservation of the free labor market and rejection of state intervention in labor disputes , fight against monopolies , the separation of church and state, abolition of conscription , sustainable energy and stricter prosecution of environmental crimes. Internationally, the party wants to leave the EU in favor of Nordic and global cooperation ( Nordic Council , United Nations , CSCE and EFTA ) and a humanistic reception of refugees. In the area of the political system, the party calls for a democratization and transparency of administration, decentralization and strengthening of local self-government, abolition of the threshold clause , more referendums, the introduction of a municipal government based on the Swiss model and the abolition of parliamentary group discipline . The party supports the legalization of cannabis. State surveillance and control as well as restrictions on freedom of expression are rejected.
enforcement
The idea of "full property tax," the collection of rent for the benefit of lowering other taxes, did not explain well to the electorate. In return, the principle has been rooted in some other parties and has influenced the Danish tax regime to the extent that it differentiates between home and real estate.
Det økonomiske råd (Danish State Economic Advisory Board , also known as “the economic wise men”) has often called for a reform of the tax burden in favor of property tax.
Relationship to the political spectrum
Retsforbundet sees itself as a party of the political center, but follows a different social model than usual parties of the center. According to the party, most of the Danish parties can be described as shades of social liberalism . Instead of the social-liberal distribution policy, the Georgist liberalism of Retsforbundet is supposed to shape a civil society that can develop without interference, whereby the citizens can live in freedom, justice, equality and social equilibrium.
Traditionally the radical Venstre is the party 's closest competitor. The radical Venstre, thanks to its pragmatic ideology, became the dominant party in the center of Denmark and was able to exert great influence through cooperation with both wings. In contrast to this, the ideology of Retsforbundet is sharper and more idealistic, with strongly liberalist, autonomist, humanist and social reformist elements. The electorate of Retsforbundet was quite broad, from manual workers to self-employed, small farmers, apprentices and other young voters, but in contrast to the Radical Venstre a relatively small proportion of academics and civil servants. The attitudes towards EU membership also portray the two parties as opposites.
As an active participant in Folkebevægelsen mod EU , the party has encounters with the political left .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Political Speakers , retsforbundet.dk
- ↑ Nikolaj Petersen: Denmark and the Atlantic Alliance 1949-1957 , in: National foreign and alliance policy of NATO member states , red. Norbert Wiggershaus, Winfried Heinemann, R. Oldenbourg, Munich, 2000
- ^ Aage Trommer: Sabotage and strikes in occupied Denmark. Their economic, political and social significance , in: Second World War and social change: Axis powers and occupied countries , red. Waclaw Dlugoborski, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen, 1981
- ↑ Retsforbundets partiprogram 1919 , danmarkshistorien.dk