Abstract
The question of the Church’s role in Italian society and relationship to the State has been an important and often divisive political issue in Italy since the birth of the Italian State more than a century ago. This religious cleavage in Italian politics and, more specifically, the desire of the Church and the Catholic subculture to defend Catholic interests in Italy is basic to the understanding of the Christian Democratic Party. Catholicism is, in fact, crucial to the DC in a number of important ways: (i) in the origins and formation of the party; (ii) in its electoral support; and (iii) in providing many of its leaders and activists. Furthermore, it is the DC’s religious nature which makes it unique among Italian parties and which, at the same time, allows it to share important characteristics with a worldwide group of parties with religious origins.
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