On 14 December 1999 Professor Mogens N Pedersen completed his sixtieth year. The day was celebrated by his friends and colleagues by the publication of this Festschrift. The Festschrift contains various articles written by friends and colleagues of Mogens Pedersen where the major theme is elite, parties and democracy. Not only was Mogens Pedersen one of the first political scientists in Denmark, but has also for many years held a prominent position in European political science, as editor of the European Journal of Political Research and as chairman of the ECPR. His notable contributions to the discipline may conveniently be subsumed under the heading "Elites, Parties and Democracy" which is the title of this Festchrift.

In 2005 the Danish government obliged the wish of the Greenlandic Home Rule to commission a historical report on the circumstances surrounding the changed status of Greenland within the realm following the modification of the Constitution in 1953. This report is here presented by leading specialists in the field who provide the most comprehensive account to date of Greenland's colonial status in the years 1945-54. With the Constitution of 1953, the colonial status of Greenland came to an end and the country was made an integral part of Denmark, and Greenlanders were now granted equal rights as citizens within the Danish realm. In 1954 this new arrangement was supported by an overwhelming majority in the UN General Assembly. The decision to change Greenland's status was conditioned both by internal and external circumstances. In the UN context, Danes increasingly felt the strain of being a colonial power, and they also feared the possibility of future UN interference in Greenlandic affairs. The chapters in this volume are significant contributions to the ongoing debates concerning important political developments in Danish-Greenlandic relations in the post-war period. Together they constitute the definitive attempt to untangle and delineate the many circumstances impinging on the phasing out of Greedlands colonial status.