Strong or Weak State? The Case of Danish Agricultural Export Policy, 1849-1906

Abstract

Recently Amanda R. Tillotson argued in an article in Comparative Politics' that Danish development towards modernization can be explained in terms of a theory focusing on role of the central government as an active participant in process, a participant that sought to advance relatively consistent core goals with constraints imposed by changing structure of municipal institutions and by shifting division of political and economic power among nations.2 I shall argue that, in so far as Denmark's development after 1849 (when it became a constitutional monarchy) is concerned, analysis offered by Tillotson regarding role of Danish central government can be questioned. Instead, Danish development can be understood better as based on a proliferation of associations of different kinds, an explicit renunciation of state intervention in most agricultural affairs, and a negotiated intervention in a few. The central government, therefore, was not a very active participant in this case; consequently, a strict statist distinction between state and society is difficult to maintain. In addition, statist approach may block from researcher's view what was going on in civil society. The discussion below is meant to indicate that distinction between state and society may be right under certain circumstances, but less fertile in others. The problem for researcher, then, is to determine circumstances--in this case for Danish state in second half of nineteenth century. This is where I take issue with analysis offered by Tillotson.