Politics of Iceland: Difference between revisions

{{shortShort description|Political system of Icelandnone}}

| name = '''Political system of Iceland'''

| native_name = {{Lang|is|Íslensk stjórnmál}} ([[Icelandic language|Icelandic]])

| type = [[Parliamentary system|Parliamentary]] [[Republicrepublic]]

| legislature_place = [[Alþingishúsið]], [[ReykjavikReykjavík]]

| upperhouseupper house =

| lowerhouselower house =

| lowerhouse_speaker_title = [[List of Speakers of the Parliament of Iceland| Speaker of the Althing]]

| current_hos = [[GuðniHalla Thorlacius JóhannessonTómasdóttir]]

| current_hog = [[KatrínBjarni JakobsdóttirBenediktsson (born 1970)|Bjarni Benediktsson]]

| current_cabinet = [[CabinetSecond cabinet of KatrínBjarni JakobsdóttirBenediktsson|KatrínBjarni JakobsdóttirBeneiktsson cabinet]]

| cabinet_hq = ReykjavikReykjavík

[[Iceland]] is arguably the world's oldest [[assembly democracy]],<ref> {{Cite web|url=http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/03/iceland/del-giudice-text|title=Power Struggle|first=Marguerite|last=Del Giudice|publisher=[[National Geographic (magazine)|National Geographic]]|page=85|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171107025544/http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/03/iceland/del-giudice-text|date=March 2008|access-date=2019-07-21|archive-date=2017-11-07|url-status=dead|website=Iceland's Heated Debate - National Geographic Magazine}}

</ref> and has been rated as a "full democracy" in 2021.<ref>{{Cite webnews|url=https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2021/02/02/global-democracy-has-a-very-bad-year|title=Global democracy has a very bad year|date=February 2, 2021|vianewspaper=The Economist|access-date=September 28, 2021|archive-date=February 2, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210202220733/https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2021/02/02/global-democracy-has-a-very-bad-year|url-status=live}}</ref>

[[File:Iceland-Reykjavik-Stjornarrad-1.jpg|thumb|[[Cabinet of Iceland]], seat of executive branch.]]

|[[GuðniHalla Th. JóhannessonTómasdóttir]]

|1 August 20162024

The prime minister and cabinet exercise most executive functions. The [[head of government]] is the [[prime minister]], who, together with the cabinet, takes care of the [[executive (government)|executive]] part of [[government]]. The cabinet is appointed by the president after general elections to [[Althing]]; however, this process is usually conducted by the leaders of the political parties, who decide among themselves after discussions which parties can form the cabinet and how its seats are to be distributed (under the condition that it has a majority support in Althing). Only when the party leaders are unable to reach a conclusion by themselves in reasonable time does the president exercise this power and appoint the cabinet themselves. This has never happened since the republic was founded in 1944, but in 1942 the regent of the country ([[Sveinn Björnsson]], who had been installed in that position by the Althing in 1941) did appointappointed a non-parliamentary government. The regent had, for all practical purposes, the position of a president, and Sveinn in fact became the country's first president in 1944. The governments of Iceland have almost always been coalitions with two or more parties involved, because no single political party has received a majority of seats in the Althing during Iceland's republican period. The extent of the political powers possessed by the office of the president areis disputed by legal scholars in Iceland; several provisions of the constitution appear to give the president some important powers but other provisions and traditions suggest differently.

The modern parliament, called the "[[Althing]]" or "{{Lang|is|Alþingi}}", was founded in 1845 as an advisory body to the [[Denmark|Danish]] [[Danish monarchy|king]]. It was widely seen as a reestablishmentre-establishment of the assembly founded in 930 in the [[Icelandic Commonwealth|Commonwealth]] period and suspended in 1799. The Althing is composed of 63 members, elected every 4 years unless it is dissolved sooner. [[Suffrage]] for presidential and parliamentary elections is 18 years of age and is universal. Members of the Althing are elected on the basis of proportional representation from six constituencies. Until 1991, membership of the Althing was divided between a lower and upper house but this was changed to a fully [[unicameral]] system.

After four four-year terms as the world's first elected woman president, the widely popular [[Vigdís Finnbogadóttir]] chose not to run for re-election in 1996.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Kristinsson|first=Gunnar Helgi|date=1996-11-01|title=The presidential election in Iceland 1996|journal=Electoral Studies|volume=15|issue=4|pages=533–537|doi=10.1016/s0261-3794(96)80470-7}}</ref> More than 86% of voters turned out in the June 29, 1996 presidential elections to give former leftist party chairman [[Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson]] a 41% plurality and relatively comfortable 12% victory margin over the closest of three other candidates. Traditionally limited to 6–12 weeks, Iceland's campaign season was marked by several intensely personal attacks on Ólafur Ragnar, a former finance minister who tried to erase memories of his controversial support of inflationary policies and opposition to the [[United States|U.S.]] military presence at the [[NATO]] base in [[Keflavík]]. Ólafur Ragnar successfully had used his largely ceremonial office to promote Icelandic trade abroad and family values at home. The [[2020 Icelandic presidential election|last presidential elections]] took place on June 27, 2020.

The [[20172021 Icelandic parliamentary election|last parliamentary elections]] took place on September 25, 2021. TheA three-party coalition was formed infollowing the [[2017 Icelandic parliamentary election|2017 parliamentary elections]] by the [[Independence Party (Iceland)|Independence Party]] (''Sjálfstæðisflokkurinn''), the [[Progressive Party (Iceland)|Progressive Party]] (''Framsóknarflokkurinn'') and the [[Left-Green Movement]] (''Vinstrihreyfingin – grænt framboð''). These political parties were again the three largest political parties in Iceland after the latest elections and subsequently continued the coalition for another term.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2021-11-28 |title=From Iceland — Iceland's New Government Announced |url=https://grapevine.is/news/2021/11/28/icelands-new-government-announced/ |access-date=2022-03-10 |website=The Reykjavik Grapevine |language=en-US}}</ref> This was the first time since 2009 in which existing coalition is renewed in Iceland.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Fernando Casal Bertoa |title=Government coalition survives in Iceland – for the first time since the bank crash of 2008 |url=https://whogoverns.eu/government-coalition-survives-in-iceland-for-the-first-time-since-the-bank-crash-of-2008/ |access-date=2022-03-10 |website=Who Governs Europe |language=en-US}}</ref> A total of 203,898 votes were cast consulting 80.1% of the 254,681 electorates.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Úrslit Alþingiskosninga 2021 |url=https://www.mbl.is/frettir/kosningar/results/ |access-date=2022-03-10 |website=www.mbl.is |language=is}}</ref>

In losing four seats in the April [[1995 Icelandic parliamentary election|1995 parliamentary elections]], the [[Independence Party (Iceland)|IP]] and [[Social Democratic Party (Iceland)|SDP]] (so -called ''[[Viðey]] government'') mustered a simple majority in the 63-seat Althing. However, Prime Minister and IP leader [[Davíð Oddsson]] chose the resurgent [[Progressive Party (Iceland)|Progressive Party]] (PP) as a more conservative partner to form a stronger and more stable majority with 40 seats. Splintered by factionalism over the economy and Iceland's role in the [[European Union]] (EU), the SDP also suffered from being the only party to support Iceland's EU membership application.

The beginning of the millennium saw a merger of all the [[Left-wing politics|left parties]] to form the [[Social Democratic Alliance]]. Some members chose to join another new left party instead, the [[Left-Green Movement]]. After the PP's loss in the [[2007 Icelandic parliamentary election|2007 elections]] its longstanding alliance with the IP ended despite still being able to form a majority. Instead, the IP's leader [[Geir Haarde]] chose a stronger but somewhat unstable coalition with the Social Democrats (the [[Þingvellir]] government).

After the 2008 financial crisis, there has been an increasing fractionalization of the Icelandic party system. The increase in the number of parties has made it harder for coalition governments to form.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Hardarson|first1=Ólafur Th|last2=Kristinsson|first2=Gunnar Helgi|date=2018-12-01|title=Iceland: Political development and data for 2017|journal=European Journal of Political Research Political Data Yearbook|language=en|volume=57|issue=1|pages=135–141|doi=10.1111/2047-8852.12222|s2cid=158256950 |issn=2047-8852}}</ref> What's more, since the initial resignation of the government in January 2009 after the banking collapse, revelations of subsequent political scandals have resulted in the government collapsing in 2016, following the [[Panama Papers]], and again in 2017, following revelations of impropriety within the ranks of the political class; both instances culminated in anti-government protests being staged.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Heffernan|first=Timothy|date=2020-01-01|title=Crisis and Belonging: Protest Voices and Empathic Solidarity in Post-Economic Collapse Iceland|journal=Religions|language=en|volume=11|issue=1|pages=22|doi=10.3390/rel11010022|doi-access=free}}</ref> Organized protests held to highlight and challenge political corruption since 2008 have therefore come to stress the necessity for the new [[Icelandic constitution]] that was co-drafted by the 2009 leftist government and select members of the public to be enshrined into law.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Heffernan|first=Timothy|date=2020-06-01|title="Where Is the New Constitution?" Public Protest and Community-Building in Post–Economic Collapse Iceland|journal=Conflict and Society|language=en|volume=6|issue=1|pages=236–254|doi=10.3167/arcs.2020.060114|doi-access=free|hdl=1959.4/unsworks_73167|hdl-access=free}}</ref>
[[File:Politics Of Iceland.svg|thumb|300px|The politicalPolitical system of Iceland.]]