Declare a dictionary inside a static class

If you want to declare the dictionary once and never change it then declare it as readonly:

private static readonly Dictionary<string, string> ErrorCodes
    = new Dictionary<string, string>
{
    { "1", "Error One" },
    { "2", "Error Two" }
};

If you want to dictionary items to be readonly (not just the reference but also the items in the collection) then you will have to create a readonly dictionary class that implements IDictionary.

Check out ReadOnlyCollection for reference.

BTW const can only be used when declaring scalar values inline.

The correct syntax ( as tested in VS 2008 SP1), is this:

public static class ErrorCode
{
    public static IDictionary<string, string> ErrorCodeDic;
     static ErrorCode()
    {
        ErrorCodeDic = new Dictionary<string, string>()
            { {"1", "User name or password problem"} };
    }
}