Reconsidering the Party Distances and Dimensionality of the Danish Folketing

Using the index of distances and the Optimal Classification method, the party positions and the dimensionality of the Danish Folketing is calculated from 1920 to 2005. The empirical results suggest that a one-dimensional model explains around 85 per cent of the legislative dimensionality in Denmark over time with only a modest presence of two or more dimensions in the 1970s. The rank order of party positions derived through the index of distance has higher face validity than the rankings derived through the Optimal Classification method. The Optimal Classification method produces a dimensionality measure which, when analysed, can be used to explain most of the events in Danish politics over the last 80 years. It is further argued that the shifts in the dimensionality can be explained by the number of parties in parliament and by historical incidents.