Faroe Islands: Lagting Elections 1945-1984

One characteristic feature of the Faroese party system is that the parties are divided in two 'dimensions' which means that another central political dividing line than the socio-economic one is assumed to exert influence on voter as well as on party level. This second political dividing line/dimension concerns the question of the national affiliation of the Faroe Islands, i.e. whether people want a severance from or continued affiliation with Denmark. # Thus, the problem presents itself as being a question of the extent to which the two conflicting aspects, i.e. the socio-economic right/left and the nationally oriented one as regards affiliation with Denmark, are determinant for the election results. Thus, the starting point being the Faroese Lagting elections (the Lagting is the Faroese representative Council) only part of the total transformation process will be examined in this survey, viz. the part of the process and of the derivative political development which manifests itself in the electoral behaviour. # In order to be able to treat some of the special characteristics of Faroese electoral behaviour more detailed the primary investigator chose to concentrate on the period after the introduction of self-government in 1948. In this period the economic and social conditions as well as the relations to Denmark have changed considerably. These changes have, without doubt, also led to changes of the electoral behaviour, and the purpose of this survey is to examine the directions of these changes. # As regards 'election geography' the Faroe Islands consists of 7 constituencies with a total of 74 polling stations, and the data material comprises information on the number of voters, the number of valid votes cast, the number of votes for Folkepartiet (the People's Party), Sambandspartiet (a party which advocates continued affiliation with Denmark), Socialdemokratiet (the Social Democratic Party), Selvstyrepartiet (which advocates self-government), det Republikanske Parti (the Republican Party), Frp./Krf. (the Progress Party and the Christian People's Party), and other parties at each of the Lagting elections in the period 1945-1984 (1945, 1946, 1950, 1954, 1958, 1962, 1966, 1970, 1974, 1978, 1980 and 1984) as well as the number of voters, the number of valid votes cast, the number of votes for the Government proposal, the number of votes for severance, and the number of invalid votes cast at the referendum in 1946 for each of the 74 polling stations, each of the 7 constituencies, and for the Faroe Islands as a whole