Christian Democracy has been a major political force in Western Europe since the war, after which it emerged in dramatic fashion to fill the vacuum left by the totalitarian movements. However, Christian Democracy is not simply a synonym for Conservatism. Rather it has distinctive characteristics of its own, but these do not amount to a Weltanschauung, and Christian Democracy is too diverse socially and politically to merit the epithet ‘movement’. The author discusses the reasons for the decline of Christian Democracy in the 1960s, and then assesses the Christian Democratic revival of the 1970s, reviewing the problems faced by the Christian Democrats transnationally and domestically. He concludes that whilst the Christian Democratic parties remain powerful in many individual European countries, Christian Democracy as a transitional force in the European Community remains an unknown quantity owing to its political diversity.
No takes yet. Share an insight, caveat, or question.
R. E. M. Irving (1979) studied this question.