Ritið : tímarit Hugvísindastofnunar - 01.10.2010, Page 218

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ABSTRACT
The royal republic of Iceland: Sveinn Björnsson Regent 1941–1944
The article starts out with a brief discussion of the theories and practice of democ-
racy, pointing out that all democrats share the vision of placing supreme power in
the hands of the people while disagreeing on basic constitutional principles. Thus
the theory of parliamentary democracy holds that on election day the people
delegate supreme power temporarily to the national legislature, parliament.
Britain is the original home of parliamentary democracy, also giving it a common
name, the Westminster model. This version of democracy allocates no space to an
independent head of state, opting instead for a ceremonial king or a president
selected by parliament. A competing model of democracy is presidential govern-
ment as formulated in the constitution of the United States of America, giving the
president great executive powers.
In 1941 Alþingi, the Icelandic parliament, elected Sveinn Björnsson (1881–
1952) as the Regent of Iceland holding all the constitutional powers formerly held
by the Danish King. Iceland did however continue to accept the King as its
legitimate head of state. At first political practice was not altered by the election of
the Regent; parliament and party leaders reigned supreme. Through skillful
leadership Sveinn Björnsson did however use the inability of the political parties
to form a majority government as an opportunity to change Iceland into a royal
republic, a democratic hybrid between parliamentary government and the presi-
dential system. This royal republic then became in 1944 a blue-print for the semi-
presidential government of the republic of Iceland when for the second time in
history, after the republic of Weimar (1919–1933), a constitution came into exis-
tence that dictates the direct election of the nation’s president.
Keywords: theories and practice of democracy, royal republic, government, Iceland,
leadership
gildi frá 1919 fram til valdatöku nasista árið 1933. Lýðveldið Ísland var næst á eftir
Weimar-lýðveldinu í að stofna lýðveldi þar sem forseti skyldi kosinn beinni kosn-
ingu af þjóðinni. Samkvæmt stjórnarskrá Finnlands frá 1919 voru kosnir kjörmenn
sem síðan kusu forseta. Var svo fram til 1986 þegar nýtt ákvæði um þjóðkjör for-
seta tók gildi.
sVanuR kRIstJánsson