The roots of Icelandic democracy

The roots of Icelandic democracy

A unique road to a free society?

Author Evert Mouw, S 0332291, evert@animamundi.eu
Date 2009-02-02
Institute Leiden University
Course Political Science: Theories of Democracy
Tutor drs. J.N.M. Charmant
Wordcount ca. 6300

Figure 1: Coat of arms of Iceland (Kjallakr, 2008)

Abstract

The early history of Iceland had strong proto-democratic elements such as a national
assembly. These were developed independent of Greec or Roman examples. Later modernisation
in the ninetieth century was accelerated by this latent democratic culture. Today,
it strengthens the democratic values of modern Iceland.

Contents

1 Introduction 3
2 Geography and climate 4
3 Historic chronology 6
4 Modern democracy in Iceland 7

4.1 Parliament . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
4.2 Government . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
4.3 Juridical . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
4.4 Statistics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
5 The Free State period 10

5.1 Source: Byock (2001) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
5.2 Stratification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
5.3 State institutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
5.4 Leaders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
5.5 Taxation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
5.6 Things (assemblies) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
5.7 The End of Freedom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
6 Enlightenment and Romanticism 17

6.1 Source: Ásgeirsson (1994) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
6.2 Literacy and the national myth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
6.3 Students in Copenhagen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
6.4 Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
6.5 The power of the past . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
6.6 Inevitable democracy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
7 Conclusion 21
References 23
List of tables 23
List of figures 23

2

1 Introduction

Photographers love Iceland for its beautiful colours and diverse landscape. Living in Iceland
is not too bad: it scored as the most developed country in the world by the United Nations’
Human Development Index. Some say that Iceland is one of the oldest democracies¹. The
Althing, the precursor to the modern national parliament, was founded in 930.

In 930, no main European countries were democratic, and the classic theories of democracy
were unknown to the Icelanders. Most colonists originated from Scandinavia, a highly stratified
society where the old pagan religion still flourished and where the influence of the Romans was
very limited.

This early development towards proto-democratic structures makes Iceland interesting for
political scientists. Was there a real democratic development or was Iceland just another destratified
colonist culture? Was the assumed democratic development influenced from outside,
or was it a unique home-grown Icelandic product?

So the classic examples of democracy - the Greek poleis such as Athens and the partly
democratic Roman Republic - were unknown to the founders of the Althing. This was well
before the European Enlightenment and the French and American models of democracy. This
raises the question of uniqueness. Would the Icelandic model divert from the later French and
American models of democracy? And how did the history of Iceland influence contemporary
democracy in Iceland?

First, a short overview of contemporary Iceland will be given. Then follows the history
of Iceland and the founding period of the state. Lastly, the concepts of democracy and state
will be discussed to evaluate the uniqueness of Icelandic democracy. No prior knowledge of
the reader about the history of Iceland is required or assumed - this paper is written with the
reader interested in democratic theory in mind, so experts on Icelandic history might feel that
too many well-known facts are summed up. I offer my apologies to the latter.

1

For example, the Dutch Wikipedia article on Iceland: "IJsland heeft van alle landen ter wereld de langste democratische
traditie" Retrieved from http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/IJsland#Geschiedenis_2
at 2009-01-29. The English Wikipedia version does not contain that statement.

3

2 Geography and climate

Iceland lies at quite a distance from the European mainland (see table 1). It has a cold oceanic
climate. Summers are short and the weather is often very variable. The climate limits
the agricultural possibilities, but the many rivers, lakes and the surrounding ocean offer rich
opportunities for fishing. The beautiful landscape attracts some tourism. During wintertime
large parts of the inland cannot be reached by motorised vehicles. Most villages and cities are
located near the coast. The volcanic activity is used to generate hydrothermal electricity. Some
hot springs are popular for bathing.
Place Distance [km]
Greenland 287
Faroe Islands 420
Jan Mayen 550
Scotland 798
Norway 970
Table 1: Distances to other countries. Source: Landmaelingar Islands, Orkustofnun and Raunvisindastofnun
Haskolans. Landshagir 2001.

Wintertime is not only a bad time to travel over land. Ice floes are dangerous for ships and
in the past, Iceland was practically isolated during a large part of the year. Byock (2001, p.44)
remarks: "Politically, the Island became an inward-looking country that was in contact with,
but was largely independent of, the rest of Europe." Only with the advent of modern ships,
satellites, and airplanes the island has become better accessible.

The remoteness of Iceland and its limited economic resources caused mainly disinterest
from most European powers. The great distance from Norway was an advantage for the Norwegian
settlers who wanted independence from the king. At the time of settlement around 900,
Iceland was not inhabited, maybe except for some Irish monks who sought solitude.

4

Figure 2: Map of Iceland from Lonely Planet. Source: http://www.lonelyplanet.
com/iceland

5

3 Historic chronology

A short historic chronology is given in table 2. I have only listed those events that seemed
important to me for the subject of this study. An important period is the Free State period
(930-1262), which is described in the section that bears its name.

Period Event
330 BC Ultima Thule is mentioned by the Greek navigator Pytheas

874 First successfull Norse settler
930 Founding of the Althing at Þingvellir
999 Adoption of Christianity

1262 Norse King declared King of Iceland (Old Covenant)
1397-1523 Kalmar Union unites Denmark, Norway, and Sweden
1540-1550 Conversion to Lutheranism

1602 Denmark imposes a trade monopoly
1662 The Danish king restricts the power of the Althing
1798 Althing moved to Reykjavík from Þingvellir
1800 Althing dissolved by the Danish Crown
1843 The Althing is re-established as an advisory body
1876 Danmark grants Iceland greater autonomy
1918 Sovereign Icelandic state under the Danish Crown
1944 End of Union with Denmark; republic founded at Þingvellir
Table 2: Short chonology of Iceland (selected event). Source: ‘Iceland on the web’, retrieved at
2009-01-29 from http://iceland.vefur.is/iceland_history/history.htm

An important name for Icelandic nationalism is Jón Sigurðsson (1811-1879), who strove to
independence from Denmark. He was inspired by Romantic ideologies of mainland Europe.
This can be recognised in the ideals of Icelandic nationalism: resurrection of the Icelandic
Free State with its values such as democracy, freedom of the individual, and respect for the old
language and the Sagas. (Ásgeirsson, 1994)

6

4 Modern democracy in Iceland

4.1 Parliament

The Icelandic parliament is called the Althing or Althingi. It has a website at www.althingi.is
where its current structure is described:

On election day, all Icelandic citizens of 18 years of age and older have the right
to vote in elections to the Icelandic parliament or Althingi. At intervals of no more
than four years general elections are held by secret ballot to select 63 members
of the Althingi. In elections, political parties seek a mandate from the nation to
assume responsibility for both legislative and executive power, both of which are
led by the governing parties.
...
Currently five political parties are represented in the Althinqi: the Independence
Party, the Left-Green Movement, the Liberal Party, the Progressive Party and the
Social Democratic Alliance.
The Independence Party and the Social Democratic Alliance form the ruling coalition.
(Retrieved 2009-01-17)
This is a representative proportional parliamentary democracy with a multi-party system.

4.2 Government

The head of state is a mostly ceremonial president, so Iceland is a republic. The prime minister
is the head of government. The president is elected and officially he must appoint a cabinet.
In practice, the leaders of the leading parties in the Althing will work together to propose a
cabinet. The government can be found online at www.government.is.

4.3 Juridical

Iceland has a constitution and all executive and legislative decisions are subject to judicial
review. The development and practice of judicial review is probably strongly influenced by
American theories and practices (Helgadóttir, 2006). The Supreme Court also has a website:
www.haestirettur.is.

7

4.4 Statistics

The Icelanders themselves seem to be quite participative. "In the elections to the Althinqi in
2007 around 211 thousand Icelanders were on the polling lists and 83.6% of them exercised
their right to vote."²
A democratic constitution is nice and all, but how well does it perform compared to international
norms?

In 1980, Vigdís Finnbogadóttir becomes President of Iceland - the first elected president of
a democratic Republic. In 2009, Johanna Sigurðardottir becomes prime minister, the world’s
first lesbian one.

The Human Development Index (HDI) is developed in 1980 by the economist Mahbub ul
Haq and Sir Richard Jolly. It is used by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP)³. It
tries to measure development by combining life expectancy, education, and standard of living.
Iceland ranks first of the world in 2006. To be precise, the following reports mark Iceland as
the most developed country: 2006 (2008 report and 2008 statistical update) and 2005 (2007
report and 2008 statistical update). This does not say much about the democratic system, but it
proves that Iceland has a high degree of development. Note: the results of the financial crisis
and the collapse of the króna will probably result in lower HDI rankings.

The World Democracy Audit tries to measure the democratic status of 150 countries with
populations greater than 1 million. The results for Iceland are given in the table below.
Topics Range Ranking
Political Rights 1-7 1
Civil Liberties 1-7 1
Press Freedom 0-150 8
Corruption 0-150 n/a
overall ranking 1-150 n/a
Table 3: World Democracy Audit results for Iceland
Source: http://www.worldaudit.org/countries/iceland.htm
(Retrieved 2009-01-16)

The political rights and civil liberties measurements are for 2007. The World Democracy Audit
uses the Freedom House⁴ to obtain the press freedom. I guess that the press freedom is for
2007 as well. The overall ranking is not available because the corruption score is missing.

The corruption ranking is obtained from Transparency International. Although the World
Democracy Audit does give ‘n/a’ for corruption, Transparency International⁵ ranks Iceland as

2

Source: http://www.althingi.is/kynningarefni/index_en.html (Retrieved 2009-01-17)

3

http://hdr.undp.org/en/

4

http://www.freedomhouse.org/

5

http://www.transparency.org/ (Retrieved 2009-01-16)

8

number 6 using a range of 179 countries (year 2007). In the same year, the Netherlands scored
one place lower, ranking as number 7. But the World Democracy Audit ranked the Netherlands
number 6 (year 2007).

Given the scale of 179 countries, I assume that Iceland and the Netherlands have an equal
level of corruption. The Netherlands had on overall ranking of 5 on the World Democracy
Audit⁶. We can now make an comparison:
Topics Range Icelandic Ranking Dutch Ranking
Political Rights 1-7 1 1
Civil Liberties 1-7 1 1
Press Freedom 0-150 8 6
Corruption 0-150 6 6
overall ranking 1-150 >5 5
Table 4: WDA comparison between the Netherlands and Iceland

The Netherlands and Iceland are equals for political rights and civil liberties, but the Netherlands
have somewhat more freedom of press. That means that Iceland should have an overall
ranking higher than 5, which means that Iceland is among the 10 most democratic countries in
the world.

The same World Audit also maintains an Economic Freedom index. The 2007 ranking lists
156 countries. Iceland and the Netherlands share a 14^th place⁷.

6

http://www.worldaudit.org/countries/netherlands.htm (Retrieved 2009-01-16)

7

http://www.worldaudit.org/economicfreedom.htm (Retrieved 2009-01-19)

9

5 The Free State period

After a few decades of settlement, the Althing was founded in 930. This is the beginning of
the Free State period, which would end in 1262 when the Norse King was invited to rule over
Iceland.

5.1 Source: Byock (2001)

The political development of the young state is very thoroughly described by Byock (2001) in
his book Viking Age Iceland. The overview given in this section is largely based on his work.
Using just one source is, in general, a bad idea, but Jesse is an acknowledged expert in the
field. Better, more recent, and more comprehensive sources are ill available. I will cite his
work extensively: in fact, this section is mostly a quotation of selected parts of his book, with
a few of my own comments added to it. This selection should give a good impression of the
potential democratic level of the Free State period.

5.2 Stratification

The Norse Viking society was a highly stratified society. The settlers who sailed to Iceland
formed a simpler society, similar to the loss of class and titles then European emigrants settled
in America.

Single-household farms became the rule, and since no towns or even small villages
developed in Viking Age Iceland, the society was completely rural. [p.31]
So large a number of property-owning free farmers is an indication of the social
levelling that had transpired in Iceland in the centuries following the settlement.
The figure also suggests the political importance of the landowning farmer class,
individuals who, from all accounts, looked after their own rights and interests.
[p.55]
Unlike early Ireland with its history of chieftains and warlords dating from at least
the Bronze Age, medieval Iceland was not a tribal society, and the authority of its
leaders did not depend on ownership of on rule over defined territorial units. ... the
cultural focus was on law. [pp.72-73]

5.3 State institutions

State institutions can be divided in legislative, executive, and juridical branches. Early Iceland
had a strong legislative and juridical organisation, but remarkably lacked an executive branch.
It had no president, no king, no police, no army.
10