The Political Foundations of Christian Democracy

Abstract

At its origin, Christian Democracy was a hybrid mix of old and new forms of Catholic political thinking, and from an organisational point of view it was a mosaic of the different Catholic groups which had developed a political outlook prior to and immediately after the fall of Benito Mussolini’s Fascist government on 25 July 1943 as the result of the Fascist Grand Council’s decision to restore all powers to the King (Gallo, 1973). In contrast to the other parties that were to soon emerge in the post-fascist political context, the Christian Democrats were the beneficiaries of four distinct advantages that were quickly to transform it from one among a number of parties composing the Committee for National Liberation (CLN) to the dominant party in the post-war political system.