Denmark: Executive Power Concentration, Yet Still Consensus-Oriented

Denmark’s handling of the corona pandemic from January 2020 to May 2021 can be seen as a success story for the consensus-based model in general and for the government's handling of the crisis specifically. Yet, the crisis has also highlighted problems in the decision-making process entailing a sidelining of parliament. To this effect, the government claimed to follow expert advice from relevant public authorities, which in some instances subsequently proved to be contrary to devised policies. Oppositional contestation of government action surfaced from the first re-opening of society and onwards with right- and left-wing parties disagreeing on pace and sequence. These differences were bridged through compromises reaffirming the durability of the consensus model. While the country has conformed to its neo-corporatist legacy, a minor deviation is detected in the lacking adherence to the flexicurity model as most aid packages targeting industry resemble similar central European schemes.