@georgeob1,
No, I would not consider Denmark an exception. I just would not consider Denmark anywhere near the left terminus of the scale, perhaps it would be to the left of center but probably not very far. It is socialistic in terms of many aspects to life there but not communistic, and there are freedoms and private companies that operate there, I think. Take Vestas, the wind turbine company that is doing business here in the United States. I think a country needs to go quite a bit futher to the left than Denmark to provide optimum conditions for larger and more authoritarian government.
I realize that my one scale is not entirely perfect, but if you want to break it down in two scales, I do not think the scales are at 90 degrees from each other, perhaps they are not perfectly parallel, but they would not be too far from parallel in my opinion. I think authoritarian would be more leftward, with democratic more toward the right. Also, when you say democratic, this would only apply to the functions in which the people have a say, or would have a say by more local jurisdictions, and this may be more restricted in Denmark, there are probably more aspects of life controlled by the central government there than they are here in this country. So I would also characterize the degree of democratization to be partly typified by what local government is allowed to decide vs the central government of that country. I hope that makes sense the way I am explaining it. In summary, a less democratic form of government would have more decision making done nationally as opposed to more local government decision making, by democratically elected officials making policy. So in that respect, I believe Denmark is probably less democratic than we are, and they are also more socialistic. However, we will not need to move a great deal more leftward to rival Denmark, and that is what I am opposed to.
To say another way, a democratically formed central government that makes most of the decisions, that would be less democratic in my view than a country that had more democratically controlled local governments making their decisions than a democratically formed central government. Local governments are closer to the people and thus more representative of the citizens living there.