Christian Democracy

Christian democracy is a political 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]

Overview of political viewpoints

As a generalization, it can be said that Christian democratic parties in Europe tend to be moderately conservative and, in several cases, form the main conservative party in their respective countries (e.g., in Germany, Spain, Belgium, and Switzerland), such as the Christian Democratic People's Party of Switzerland, the Christian Social Party, the Evangelical People's Party of Switzerland and the Federal Democratic Union of Switzerland. By contrast, Christian democratic parties in Latin America tend to vary in their position on the political spectrum depending on the country they are in, being either more left-leaning,[27][28] as in the case of the Christian Democratic Party in Chile, or more right-leaning, as in the case of the National Action Party in Mexico. Geoffrey K. Roberts and Patricia Hogwood have noted that "Christian democracy has incorporated many of the views held by liberals, conservatives and socialists within a wider framework of moral and Christian principles."[29]

Christian democrats are usually socially conservative[30] and generally have a relatively skeptical stance towards abortion and same-sex marriage, although some Christian democratic parties have accepted the limited legalization of both. They advocate for a consistent life ethic concerning their opposition to capital punishment and assisted suicide.[31][32] Christian democrats have also supported the prohibition of drugs.[nb 3] Christian democratic parties are often likely to assert their country's Christian heritage and explicitly affirm Christian ethics rather than adopting a more liberal or secular stance;[nb 4] at the same time, Christian democratic parties enshrine confessional liberty.[36] Christian democracy fosters an "ecumenical unity achieved on the religious level against the atheism of the government in the Communist countries."[nb 5]

Christian democrats' views include traditional moral values (on marriage, abortion, prohibition of drugs, etc.),[38] opposition to secularization, opposition to state atheism, a view of the evolutionary (as opposed to revolutionary) development of society, an emphasis on law and order, and a rejection of communism.[37][10] Christian democrats are open to change (for example, in the structure of society) and not necessarily supportive of the social status quo, and have an emphasis on human rights and individual initiative. A rejection of secularism and an emphasis on the fact that the individual is part of a community and has duties towards it. Christian democrats hold that the various sectors of society (such as education, family, economy, and state) have autonomy and responsibility over their sphere, a concept known as sphere sovereignty.[39] One sphere ought not to dictate the obligations of another social entity; for example, the sphere of the state is not permitted to interfere with raising children, a role that belongs to the sphere of the family.[39] Within the sphere of government, Christian democrats maintain that civil issues should first be addressed at the lowest level of government before being examined at a higher level, a doctrine known as subsidiarity.[22] These concepts of sphere sovereignty and subsidiarity are considered cornerstones of Christian democracy political ideology.[40]

References

Notes

Pentecostals have also secured parliamentary representation in countries such as Australia, Colombia, Nicaragua, and Peru, and have helped form Christian political parties that have won parliamentary seats. A noteworthy case is Sweden's Christian Democrats party, not only because it is in a continent where Pentecostals have struggled to make political headway but also because its Pentecostal founder, Lewi Pethrus, who challenged secularization by creating institutions to foster a Christian counterculture, was active at a time when Pentecostals in Sweden or the United States shunned politics.[10]

"Concurrent with this missionary movement in Africa, both Protestant and Catholic political activists helped to restore democracy to war-torn Europe and extend it overseas. Protestant political activism emerged principally in England, the Lowlands, and Scandinavia under the inspiration of both social gospel movements and neo-Calvinism. Catholic political activism emerged principally in Italy, France, and Spain under the inspiration of both Rerum Novarum and its early progeny and of neo-Thomism. Both formed political parties, which now fall under the general aegis of the Christian Democratic Party movement. Both Protestant and Catholic parties inveighed against the reductionist extremes and social failures of liberal democracies and social democracies. [5]

Conservatives, including the Christian democrats, favor an abstinence strategy that aims at a controlled use of legal drugs such as alcohol, nicotine, and medical drugs, on the one hand, and prohibiting the use of illegal drugs (whether soft or hard), on the other.[33][34]

The main ideological and integrative theme present from the start concerned an emphasis on general Christian values, both as a moral rejection of the atheist, immoral and materialist Nazism and as a manner of distinction vis à vis social democracy. The thrust of the Christian democratic argument was that politics had to be founded in Christianity and that a moral recovery was a prerequisite for social and economic recuperation. It was imperative to concede the importance of Christian ethics after an epoch of such inhuman and atheist cruelty.(Heidenheimer 1960:33-4; Mintzel 1982:133)[35]