Dorthe Vejen Hansen
Civil servants - Navigating between civil society and the state

The overall loyalty expressed by the officials working for the Danish state cannot be understood as an entirely new phenomenon. Its history goes back to the introduction of absolutism in Denmark in 1660. In this context the express loyalty is usually given two explanations. One is the early development of a system of taxation. The system made it possible for the Monarch to pay his officials and it ensured the officials a pension when they retired from their duties. The second explanation concerns the relatively few individuals of aristocratic background in the Danish officialdom of the 17th century. Absolutism thus introduced a new principle for the recruitment of officials in Denmark: the individual official was recruited due to merit and his loyalty to the King was understood as unconditioned. The varying strategies used by various Monarchs in order to liberate the state officials from the private interests of the nobility thus played a significant role for the formation of the loyal Danish officialdom.