The king held executive authority as absolute ruler from 1661 until the enactment of a liberal Constitution in the early nineteenth century.

By the mid-nineteenth century a strong party-system had developed, with most prime ministers being the leader of either Venstre (left) or Højre (right).

During the first years of Occupation of Denmark, the governments of prime ministers Vilhelm Buhl and then Erik Scavenius cooperated with the Nazi occupiers.

All government operations were assumed by the permanent secretaries of the individual departments, and this arrangement lasted until the Liberation of Denmark on 5 May 1945.

Since King Christian X never accepted the resignation of the government, it existed de jure until a new cabinet was formed on 5 May 1945.

The first prime minister from the Conservative People's Party, Poul Schlüter, came to power as the head of a broad centre-right coalition in 1982.

Following the September 2011 election the right-wing lost by a small margin to the opposing centre-left coalition, led by Helle Thorning-Schmidt who on 3 October 2011 formed a new government initially consisting of the Social Democrats, the Danish Social Liberal Party and the Socialist People's Party.

The Social Democrats returned to power after the 2019 election, with Mette Frederiksen assuming the role of prime minister.

[8] Additionally, unlike most of their counterparts, Danish prime ministers can never be certain that their agenda will pass, and must cobble together a majority for each piece of legislation.

Following elections when there is no clear leader, the monarch will hold a "king/queen's meeting" where, after a series of discussions and agreements, the leader of the largest alliance and the largest party within that alliance—usually the Social Democrats or Venstre- is appointed as prime minister-elect (kongelig undersøger, "royal investigator/examiner").

The new prime minister-elect, together with the leaders of the junior parties, select ministers to form a new coalition cabinet, which is the presented to the monarch.

[3] Atypical of a Danish ministry it does not have any councils, boards or committees associated with it and its near sole responsibility is to act as the secretariat of the prime minister.

There is a small department under the ministry that takes care of special legal issues not covered under other ministries, among others Greenland's and the Faroe Islands' relation to the monarchy, the mass media's contact to the state, the number of ministers in the government, or Queen Margrethe II's legal status as a civilian.

The official summer residence of the prime minister is Marienborg, an eighteenth-century estate that was acquired by the state.

Marienborg is frequently used for governmental conferences and informal summits between the government, industry and organisations in Denmark.