The Capacity of Self-Government in Greenland

Greenland has had a history filled with interesting junctures of development. First, Greenland was a Danish colony 1721-1953, and then integrated as a county (amt) in the Danish Kingdom. Secondly, the issue of EEC triggered Greenland to aim for Home Rule and in 1979 this was realized after a referendum, where 75 percent was in favor of such an outcome. Thirdly, in the 2000s an evaluation of the Home Rule system was on the agenda to develop the Home Rule into a wider form of self-government, which was realized with the Self-Government Act in 2009. This chapter will elucidate how the self-government works internally in Greenland. What are the capacities that Greenland has and what opportunities can be evolved within or outside the Danish context? The outline is to use David Easton’s classical model with input, output, and outcome where several indicators will be included, such as, the evolution of the party system, the principle of parliamentarism, the executive, legislative and judicial branches, and the issue of independence and how this is experienced by the population. The idea is to give the reader a wider view of how this partial independent territory operates, functions and is organized.