Danish Political Culture: Fair Conditions for Inclusion of Immigrants? Tore Vincents Olsen* In the age of migration, the inclusion of immigrants in national politics is crucial for democratic reasons, and because it increases the coordination and cooperation ability of society. The informal norms, values and beliefs of the political culture are one aspect of the institutional and discursive opportunity structures immigrants face as ethnic and religious minorities.This article analyses the Danish political culture with regard to the potential barriers it has for the inclusion of immigrants in national political life. It finds that the predominantly liberal, secular and republican character of the Danish political culture excludes certain kinds of cultural and religious identities and interests at the symbolic discursive level, while Danish political culture may in fact provide more openness at the practical and institutional level. However, the question of whether or not Danish political culture is able to deal adequately with cultural and religious diversity remains. Introduction Typically, the political participation of immigrants has been studied by looking at the number of immigrants who participate and how they do so. Political participation is predominantly explained by the formal rights and institutional access immigrants have to political participation and the resources they are able to muster as a group (Tilly 1978; Ireland 1994; Layton-Henry 1990;Verba et al. 1995; Gundelach & Torpe 1999, Lindekilde 2009, 5–6), although the political culture of immigrants and the attitudes of the general native population towards immigrants and their political inclu- sion also have been included as explanatory variables (e.g., Togeby 2003). This article wants to contribute to the research on immigrant political participation by looking at the informal conditions for participation in Danish political life for cultural and religious minorities set by the norms, values and beliefs of Danish political culture. The political inclusion of immigrants is central for two reasons. First, the norms of democratic equality imply that those who are subject to the laws * Tore Vincents Olsen, Department of Political Science,Aarhus University, Bartholins Allé 7, DK-8000 Aarhus C, Denmark. E-mail: tvo@ps.au.dk ISSN 0080–6757 Doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9477.2011.00272.x © 2011 The Author(s) Scandinavian Political Studies © 2011 Nordic Political Science Association Scandinavian Political Studies,Vol. 34 – No. 4, 2011 269