What is Christian Democracy?
Politics, Religion and Ideology

A comprehensive global study of the political ideology of Christian Democracy, from the mid-nineteenth century to the present day.

Carlo Invernizzi Accetti (Author)

9781108421669, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 3 October 2019

396 pages
23.5 x 15.7 x 2.6 cm, 0.7 kg

Christian Democratic actors and thinkers have been at the forefront of many of the twentieth century's key political battles - from the construction of the international human rights regime, through the process of European integration and the creation of postwar welfare regimes, to Latin American development policies during the Cold War. Yet their core ideas remain largely unknown, especially in the English-speaking world. Combining conceptual and historical approaches, Carlo Invernizzi Accetti traces the development of this ideology in the thought and writings of some of its key intellectual and political exponents, from the mid-nineteenth century to the present day. In so doing he sheds light on a number of important contemporary issues, from the question of the appropriate place of religion in presumptively 'secular' liberal-democratic regimes, to the normative resources available for building a political response to the recent rise of far-right populism.

Introduction
Part I. Conceptual Building Blocks of the Christian Democratic Ideology: 1. Anti-materialism: Christian Democracy's philosophy of history
2. Personalism: neo-thomist metaphysics and human rights
3. Popularism: consociational democracy and constitutionalism
4. Subsidiarity: a theory of the state and internationalism
5. Social capitalism: principles of Christian Democratic political economy
6. Christian inspiration: the role of religion in politics
Part II. History and Future Prospects of Christian Democracy as a Political Phenomenon: 7. Christian Democracy in Continental Europe: from dominance to doom?
8. The European Union as a Christian Democracy: a heuristic approach
9. Christian Democracy in the Americas: periphery or vanguard?
10. Persistent normative potential of Christian Democracy: between Muslim Democracy and far-right populism
Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Comparative politics [JPB], Politics & government [JP], Religion & politics [HRAM2], Comparative religion [HRAC]