Rigsdagen
 |
Rigsdagen | |
|---|---|
| Denmark | |
 | |
| Type | |
| Type | |
| Houses | Folketing Landsting |
| History | |
| Founded | 5 June 1849 |
| Disbanded | 5 June 1953 |
| Succeeded by | Folketing |
| Seats | 225 voting members
|
| Elections | |
First Landsting election | Danish Landsting election, 1849 |
First Folketing election | 1849 Danish Folketing election |
Last Landsting election | Danish Landsting election, 1953 |
Last Folketing election | 1953 Danish Folketing election |
| Meeting place | |
| Copenhagen,Denmark | |
TheRigsdag(Danish:Rigsdagen) was the name of the nationallegislatureofDenmarkfrom 1849 to 1953.
The Rigsdag was Denmark's first parliament, and it was incorporated in theConstitution of 1849.It was abicameral legislature,consisting of two houses, theFolketingand theLandsting.The distinction between the two houses was not always clear, as they had equal power. In 1953, a new constitution was approved by referendum and adopted, with the result that the Rigsdag and the Landsting were eliminated in favor of aunicamerallegislature under the name of the Folketing. The Rigsdag, like today's Folketing, sat inChristiansborg Palacein the centre ofCopenhagen.
Membership in the Rigsdag was limited to certain sectors of society – women were not allowed to join, and neither were about a quarter of all men over 30, mostly due to their condition as servants or welfare recipients.
The name is acognateof the names of several legislatures in other Germanic countries, such as theReichstaginGermany,theRiksdaginSweden,or theRiksdaginFinland.(For a discussion of the traditional Germanic councils that gave root to bodies such as these, see the article onting-style councils.)
