Christian Democracy and Europe

Christian democracy is the heir to the Catholic confessional parties that emerged in the late nineteenth century. It is a Western European phenomenon promoting a particular social policy, aimed at the moderation of social conflicts especially between social classes. With a distinctive ideology and by appealing to religion and religious values, Christian democracy became broadly attractive to all sections of the electorate. Christian democracy was also a key driver of international cooperation and integration, and particularly influential in the formation of the European Union. Yet the overall picture of Christian democratic parties in recent decades has been one of decline. Secularization plays an obvious role here. That said, there is still some room for political movements to respond actively and strategically to changes in their environment. The chapter concludes by discussing some future options for these parties.

Religion and the European Parliament

This chapter discusses the salience, relevance, and effects of religion at the European Parliament (EP) across a range of issues. These are: the allocation of power (religion and European elections); the profile of political elites (members of the EP and religion); the structuring of political forces (religion and party politics, using the example of Christian democracy); and religion and public policy (with cases studies of identity politics and counter-radicalization). The chapter concludes that, when dealing with religion, the EP mirrors what happens in European societies more generally in terms of the secularization and culturalization of faith. The EP also duplicates a frequently found feature of EU policy making: that is, to hollow out the normative and controversial content from religion and to address the topic through the repertoire of human rights, while respecting the national diversity of Member States.

The Great Depression in the Eyes of the Silesian Christian Democrats

Goal – The great depression forced changes in the economic program of the Christian Democracy (Silesian Christian Democrats). Indicating the exceptional role of the Upper Silesian heavy industry in the economic potential of the Second Polish Republic, the program emerged from the criticism of the Sanation (Sanacja in Polish) program of surviving the crisis. Research method – The study analyzes archival sources and literature on the subject, as well as statistical data. Results – In the years of the great depression, official state authorities, as well as individual political groups formulated their own programs for overcoming the economic difficulties that were faced. Christian Democracy was one of these groups, but its program to combat the crisis was limited only to ad hoc measures aimed at mitigating the negative effects of the crisis. The activists of the Silesian Christian Democrats did not properly interpret the sources of economic difficulties, as they did not understand the core of the problem.

Political Exile in the Global Twentieth Century

This book focuses on the political exile of Catholic Christian Democrats during the global twentieth century, from the end of the First World War to the end of the Cold War. Transcending the common national approach, the present volume puts transnational perspectives at center stage and in doing so aspires to be a genuinely global and longitudinal study. Political Exile in the Global Twentieth Century includes chapters on continental European exile in the United Kingdom and North America through 1945; on Spanish exile following the Civil War (1936–39), throughout the Franco dictatorship; on East-Central European exile from the defeat of Nazi Germany and the establishment of Communist rule (1944–48) through the end of the Cold War; and Latin American exile following the 1973 Chilean coup. Encompassing Europe (both East and West), Latin America, and the United States, Political Exile in the Global Twentieth Century places the diasporas of 20th-century Christian Democracy within broader, global debates on political exile and migration.

Judeo-Christian democracy and the Transatlantic Right: Travels of a contested civilizational imaginary

“Judeo-Christian civilization” and “Christian democracy” have emerged as darling far Right tropes, seemingly uniting radical conservatives in the US and Europe behind a single, geopolitical imaginary. This article presents a brief political-conceptual story of how “Judeo-Christianity” and “Christian democracy” became a rhetorical meeting ground for radical conservatives across the Atlantic. But it also sheds light on why deep, historical, intellectual, and ethnographic divides beneath, make those grounds highly unstable terrain. Divides not only between European and American traditions of liberalism and conservatism but also between the experiences and practices of state power that inform them. Beneath the slogans of Christian democracy espoused in such disparate contexts as Charlottesville and Budapest, move different legacies, memories, enemies.

Orthodoxy and Liberalism in Russian Politics

Russia, in contrast to other modern Orthodox European count ries, has never experienced struggle for church autocephaly and the formation of political pluralism simultaneously, which naturally brought the church and liberals closer together. The distinguishing feature of the Russian liberalism is its late, or “catch up”, development. In the 19th century, libera lism no longer needed a religious approval; the appeal to the Holy Scriptures looked archaic. Another Russian distinguishing feature — divergence of secu lar and spiritual traditions — is also very important. After the emergence of the dualistic monarchy in Russia (1906—1917), religious topics were no lon ger a taboo, but Christian liberalism as an influential trend failed to develop. The attempts of combining liberal and Christian ideas in the pre-revolutiona ry Russian politics faced a number of problems. The results in practice were modest either due to the lack of the electoral demand, or due to the blocking of specific initiatives at the state and church levels. The promotion of liberal va lues contradicted Ortho dox tenets, and the target electoral group — the lower clergy — heavily depended on the episcopate. In the post-Soviet Russia, in contrast to the count ries in Central Europe, Christian politics, including its liberal version, did not revive. At the end of the day, all such projects have remained marginal. The episcopate focuses on cooperation with the authorities, and there is little support for liberal ideas among the faithful. The future might see a gradual strengthening of liberal tendencies within the church, but at the same time, the Russian version of Christian democracy remains extreme ly unlikely.