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Christian democracy

For other uses, see Christian democracy (disambiguation).
A gathering of supporters of Christian Democratic Union in Dessau, 1990

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Christian democracy is an ideology inspired by Christian social teaching to respond to the challenges of contemporary society and politics.[1][2]

Christian democracy has drawn mainly from Catholic social teaching[3][4] and neo-scholasticism,[5][6][7] as well as the Neo-Calvinist tradition within Christianity;[8][9] it later gained ground with Lutherans and Pentecostals,[nb 1] among other denominational traditions of Christianity in various parts of the world.[nb 2][11] During the nineteenth century, its principal concerns were to reconcile Catholicism with democracy,[6][7] to answer the "social question" surrounding capitalism and the working class,[12][13] and to resolve the tensions between church and state.[14][15] In the twentieth century, Christian democrats led postwar Western and Southern Europe in building modern welfare states and constructing the European Union.[16] Furthermore; in the late twentieth and early twenty-first century, Christian democracy has gained support in Eastern Europe among former communist states suffering from corruption and stagnation.[17][18]

On the European left-right political spectrum, Christian democracy has been difficult to pinpoint, as Christian democrats have often rejected liberal economics and individualism and advocated state intervention, while simultaneously defending private property rights against excessive state intervention.[19] This has meant that Christian democracy has historically been considered centre-left on economics and centre-right on many social and moral issues.[20] More recently, Christian democrats have positioned themselves as the centre-right; as with both the European People's Party and European Christian Political Movement, with which many Christian democratic parties in Europe are affiliated.[21] Christian democrats support a "slightly regulated market economy", featuring an effective social security system,[22] thus a social market economy.[23]

Worldwide, many Christian democratic parties are members of the Centrist Democrat International. Examples of major Christian democratic parties include the Christian Democratic Union of Germany, the Dutch Christian Democratic Appeal, The Centre in Switzerland, the Spanish People's Party, the Mexican National Action Party, the Austrian People's Party, and the Christian Democratic Party of Chile.[24] Many Christian democratic parties in the Americas are affiliated with the Christian Democrat Organization of America.[25]

Christian democracy continues to be influential in Europe and Latin America, although it is also present in other parts of the world.[26]

  1. ^ Caciagli, Robeck & Yong 2008, p. 165, 169.
  2. ^ Invernizzi Accetti 2019, p. 19, 24.
  3. ^ Heywood 2012, p. 83.
  4. ^ Galetti 2011, p. 28, 3.4.
  5. ^ a b Witte 1993, p. 9.
  6. ^ a b Caciagli, Robeck & Yong 2008, p. 165.
  7. ^ a b Invernizzi Accetti 2019, p. 19.
  8. ^ Nijhoff 2011, p. 18-22.
  9. ^ Freeden 2004, p. 13.
  10. ^ Robeck & Yong 2014, p. 178.
  11. ^ Freeden 2004, p. 82.
  12. ^ Fogarty 1957, p. 3.
  13. ^ Invernizzi Accetti 2019, p. 139-140.
  14. ^ Witte 1993, p. 49.
  15. ^ Fogarty 1957, p. 149-166.
  16. ^ Kalyvas & van Kersbergen 2010, p. 185.
  17. ^ Christian Democracy and the Fall of Communism. Leuven University Press. 2019. doi:10.2307/j.ctvrnfq4r. ISBN 978-94-6270-216-5. JSTOR j.ctvrnfq4r.
  18. ^ Karatnycky, Adrian (1998). "Christian Democracy Resurgent: Raising the Banner of Faith in Eastern Europe". Foreign Affairs. 77 (1): 13–18. doi:10.2307/20048358. ISSN 0015-7120. JSTOR 20048358.
  19. ^ Munro, André. "Christian democracy". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 5 November 2022. For this reason, Christian democracy does not fit squarely in the ideological categories of left and right.
  20. ^ Kte'pi 2009, p. 131: "The basic tenets of Christian democracy call for applying Christian principles to public policy; Christian democratic parties tend to be socially conservative but otherwise left of centre with respect to economic and labour issues, civil rights, and foreign policy".
  21. ^ Geest, Fred Van (4 July 2017). Introduction to Political Science: A Christian Perspective. InterVarsity Press. ISBN 978-0-8308-9086-6. In fact, there are scores of Christian Democratic parties throughout Europe and the world. In the European Parliament, they aer the dominant group, joining together in a pan-European party called the European People's Party, as well as in another party called the European Christian Political Movement. ... many Christian Democratic parties would be considered on the center-right of the ideological spectrum. ... What is distinctive about many of these parties is their explicit Christian identity.
  22. ^ Vervliet 2009, pp. 48–51.
  23. ^ Grabow 2011, p. 24-25.
  24. ^ Van Hecke & Gerard 2004.
  25. ^ Papini, Roberto (1997). The Christian Democrat International. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 276. ISBN 978-0-8476-8300-0.
  26. ^ Müller 2014.


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