Christian Democratic Party Research Articles

Partisanship, Ministers, and Biotechnology Policy

AbstractResearch in public policy and political economy has provided many insights in the evolution of public resistance against genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in the last two decades. But how does the partisan composition of a government, its programmatic orientation and the allocation of cabinet offices affect policy making in this specific area? We argue that the regulation of GMOs is determined by the ideological orientation of governments and the presence of parties with a specific ideological background in the cabinet. In addition, we hypothesize that the parties' control over relevant cabinet posts matter for GMO regulation. We test our hypotheses by using an innovative dataset that contains information on biotechnology regulation outputs of European governments in the time period from 1996 until 2013, the partisan composition and policy‐area specific positions of governments, and the party affiliation of key cabinet actors. The results show that the presence of a Christian democratic party in a cabinet increases the chances of a ban on biotech crops, in particular if it controls the Ministry of the Environment.

Fragments of the Past: Homeland Politics and the South African Transition, 1990–2014

During South Africa's constitutional negotiations in the 1990s, it was assumed that the self-governing ‘homelands’ would inevitably be re-incorporated into a new South Africa, whatever that may be. Despite being denigrated by the liberation movements throughout their existence, some homelands would become aligned to the African National Congress (ANC) at apartheid's close: the Transkei, led by General Bantu Holomisa, became a particular base of support. KwaZulu (through the Inkatha Freedom Party [IFP] and its leader, Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi) and Bophuthatswana (led by Lucas Mangope), on the other hand, would become key players in oppositional alliances, first the Concerned South Africans Group (COSAG) and later the Freedom Alliance. KwaZulu/IFP argued for a distinctly federal dispensation, in addition to recognition of the Zulu king. Bophuthatswana, similarly, argued for a confederal state. In 1994, however, four provinces became nine, and the former homelands were no more. Bantu Holomisa became a popular figure within the ANC and, later, leader of the United Democratic Movement (UDM). Chief Buthelezi would become a minister in the Government of National Unity. The United Christian Democratic Party (UCDP), formed by Lucas Mangope, became a presence in the South African parliament and North West provincial legislature. This article analyses the role of these three homelands during the negotiations process, looking at the continued salience of their politics since 1994 and the problematic legacies for provincial governance in the post-apartheid era. It also shows the problematic narrative that has accompanied the homelands, and their continued relevance in the post-apartheid state almost 20 years after their official demise.

Christian Democratic Internationalism: TheNouvelles Equipes Internationalesand the Geneva Circles between European Unification and Religious Identity, 1947–1954

AbstractThis article analyses Christian Democratic International organisations after the Second World War, namely theNouvelles Equipes Internationales(NEI) and the Geneva Circles (secret discussion groups), in order to understand how and to what extent this international network has been important for European Christian Democratic Parties and for the overall process of European unification. The goal is to describe the relationship between the Christian-inspired parties and their efforts to define a common ideological framework and a successful Europeanism capable of competing with other political groups and ideologies, especially communist and nationalist forces. The main sources used are the minutes of meetings of the NEI and the Geneva Circles.

Reproducing Toxic Election Campaigns: Negative Campaigning and Race-Based Politics in the Western Cape

The 2014 election in the Western Cape was once again a high-stakes, fiercely-contested affair. Political parties saw the Western Cape as an 'open race' and the province became the centre of vigorous campaign efforts in the lead-up to the election. The African National Congress (ANC), which had lost control of the province because its vote share dropped from 45% in 2004 to 32% in 2009, hoped to unseat the Democratic Alliance (DA), which had won in 2009 by a very narrow margin (51%). The ANC felt that it had done enough to regain control of the province, especially in light of deep-seated disillusionment in many communities and the violent protests that took place prior to the election.While the ANC maintained its support base, winning votes from 33% of the provincial electorate, the type of identity-based campaign it pursued combined with other factors to work to the DA's advantage. Despite the fact that the DA also engaged in race-based campaigning it won 59% of the provincial vote. This was obtained at the expense of small parties, who received negligible support in the 2014 election. Only the Economic Freedom Fighters and the African Christian Democratic Party won enough votes to obtain a seat each in the provincial legislature. This article examines electoral dynamics in the Western Cape, which saw the consolidation of DA support in the province. It focuses on the 2014 election campaign and the extent to which the negative campaign cycle evident in previous elections continued during the 2014 election campaign.

Election note on the 2013 Norwegian election

On September 9th, 2013, Norway held a general election to elect a parliament that would sit between 2013 and 2017. At the time of the election Norwaywas lead by a Red-Green coalition government that had been in power since the 2005 parliamentary elections. The parties in the coalition were the Labour Party (AP), the Centre Party (SP) and the Socialist Left Party (SV). In an attempt to avoid another defeat, opposition parties joined forces and, for the first time ever, the Progress Party (FrP) was in a real position to join a governing coalition. All the three other centre-right parties (the Conservatives (H), the Christian Democratic Party (KrF) and the Liberal Party (V)) acknowledged it as a possible partner. This proved to be a good strategy for them as the post-election government consisted of the Conservatives and the Progress Party and with the Liberal Party and the Christian Democratic Party as supporting parties in the parliament.1

Unorthodox Fate: The Rise of Chile’s Christian Democratic Party

This essay is a theoretical and historical analysis of how and why Chile’s political Catholicism followed a unique course of development during the first half of the twentieth century. For most part of modern history, Catholicism and democratic Liberalism were antithetical worldviews; however, during the first decades of the twentieth century, political Catholicism in Chile followed a political path that embraced the basic tenet of Liberalism, postponing political polarization, violence, and authoritarianism which had engulfed other Catholic societies. In the earliest phase of the Chilean Christian Democratic Party, from 1934 to1941, two groups of individuals fought an ideological battle over opposing conceptions of society. The democratic faction of the young Catholic party, led by Eduardo Frei Montalva, prevailed against the Fascism-inspired group. That was the beginning of the first successful Catholic Democratic party in modern history. The principal purpose of this essay is to explain why Chile’s pol...

Fundamenty ideowe myśli społeczno-gospodarczej i politycznej ks. Jana Piwowarczyka

Father Jan Piwowarczyk (1889–1959) Philosophy doctor in theology, ethicist, sociologist, academic teacher, catholic feature writer, theoretician of pre-war for the Christian democratic party. In 1907, he graduated from gymnasium in Wadowice, then he studied at the Seminary for the Archdiocese of Krakow. On the 2nd of July 1911, he was ordained a priest at the Wawel Cathedral. He was a cannon of the Krakow chapter, the rector of Krakow Seminary in the years 1939–1945. He was an outstanding catholic feature writer – in the years 1922–1939 he was the chief editor of “Głos Narodu” and a tutor to a whole generation of journalists. He was probably the best expert in the field of social Catholicism in the interwar period. The author of numerous articles and books on this subject In 1945 he was appointed by cardinal Adam Stefan Sapiecha to be the first editor in chief of “Tygodnik Powszechny” (1945–1951).

Social dimensions of programs and activities and electoral success of christian democratic parties in central and eastern europe (1990–2014)

The article is dedicated to analyzing the phenomenon of Christian Democratic parties and their ideologies in general and in Central and Eastern Europe in particular. The author has determined social dimensions (social base and social issues) of Christian Democratic parties in Central-Eastern Europe, as well as its impact on electoral/cabinet success of liberal parties; carried out the comparative analysis of the electoral success of Christian Democratic parties in Central-Eastern Europe in 1990–2014.

Democracy, Islam, and Secularism in Turkey

This book edited by Ahmet Kuru and Alfred Stepan provides an important contribution to the understanding of the nexus between democracy and democratization, religion and secularism in the context of Turkey, arguably the most stable Muslim-majority democracy in the greater Middle East. The volume features a select group of scholars and policy makers and is a product of two conferences held at Columbia University with the subsequent meetings and a thorough review and revision process. Among the contributors to the volume is Ergun Özbudun, the head of the academic commission for the new constitutional draft, whose chapters problematize the conflict between the pluralist nature of the Turkish society and monolithic state as well as the dynamics of the legal constitutional developments in the country. Prominent Ottomanists Karen Barkey and Şükrü Hanioğlu from Columbia and Princeton Universities, respectively, examine the origins of the state-sanctioned multiculturalism in the Ottoman lands and its applicability to the current milieu of the Turkish Republic as well as the origins of Kemalism. Ümit Cizre, a leading specialist on the Turkish Armed Forces (TAF), in her essay argues that TAF is currently switching its emphasis from the top-down to a bottom-up tactical approach in order to secure its role in the society. In other words, TAF applies its efforts on mobilizing the civil society of the urban secular stratum of the Turkish population, which have enjoyed a privileged modern lifestyle, rather than relying on state institutions. Joost Lagendijk, formerly a Dutch Green Left member of the European Parliament, head of the Delegation of the EU-Turkey Joint Parliamentary Committee and currently a columnist for a Turkish daily, examines the progress of the Turkish accession to the European Union and, especially, the benefits and challenges that this process has faced during the rule of the Justice and Development Party (AKP). Stathis Kalyvas, a prominent political scientist and expert on Christian Democratic parties claims that the process of political Islamists' moderation in Turkey is not a unique experience. Rather, it is a continuation of a broader process of democratic inclusion of, and expansion toward, those factions of the society who initially oppose democratic ideals, which had started in Western Europe in the mid-1800s.

(Re)Construction of Christian Democratic party identity in Germany and The Netherlands

No Access(Re)Construction of Christian Democratic party identity in Germany and The NetherlandsTorsten Oppelland, Gerrit VoermanTorsten OppellandSearch for more papers by this author, Gerrit VoermanSearch for more papers by this authorPublished Online:Jan 2019https://doi.org/10.7788/hpm-2014-0106SectionsPDF/EPUB ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack Citations ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail About Previous article Next article FiguresReferencesRelatedDetails Download book cover ISSN: 0943-691XeISSN: 2194-4040HistoryPublished online:January 2019 PDF download

Interest groups and political parties in Italian agricultural policy: powerful farmers with and without parties

This article is about the transformation of party–group relationships in Italian agricultural policy. The political context and the policy dynamics have given rise to varying relations between farmers’ organisations and parties at different points of Italian political history. The close link between the largest organisations (Coldiretti and Confagricoltura) and the Christian Democratic Party initially structured party–group relationships; the supremacy of the former was a central feature of the wider system of relations among parties, groups and other policymaking actors. These relations lasted a long time, but the effective dynamics changed. Increasingly, the governing parties gave less attention to agricultural issues: farmers’ groups and the ministry of agriculture could be left to develop policy, and this situation was consolidated, thanks to the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) from the 1960s. The institutionalisation of a distributive policy paradigm, both at the national and at the European levels, strengthened farmer organisations and other agricultural interest groups later on. Following the Italian political crisis of the early 1990s and CAP reform in the 1990s and 2000s, the political and policy contexts changed substantially: the main political parties disappeared, but interest groups were able to maintain relations with governments of the day and to develop temporary links with different parties in the legislative arena, thus enabling them to play a central role in agricultural policymaking.

Between populist rhetoric and pragmatic policymaking: The normalization of migration as an electoral issue in German politics

In Germany issues of immigration and integration have gradually moved into the centre of competitive party politics over the past 20 years. This article highlights two central features of this development: First, in recent years there has been a notable gap between highly polarizing (populist) public debates on the one hand and a pragmatic shift in policymaking among the country’s mainstream parties on the other. Second, the immigration issue poses a considerable challenge to the core political identity of the centre-left and the centre-right. On the basis of a frame analysis of electoral politics this article argues that, in spite of immigrants’ traditional support for the Social Democratic Party, Chancellor Merkel’s Christian Democratic Party has recently been successful in claiming ownership over the immigration issue by linking it to policy fields in which it commands public trust, namely economic and security policies.

Analýza vývoje vnímání národní identity německou CDU v letech 1990–2009

The paper aims to explain the development of the perception of national identity of the Christian Democratic Party (CDU), the strongest German political party in the past few decades. The paper focuses on election manifestos for the 1990, 1994, 1998, 2002, 2005, and 2009 elections. For this purpose, each manifesto is examined according to up to five analytical categories – such as values, nation, Europe, threats, and society. These categories explore the party’s perception in a wider context instead of focusing only on direct references to national identity. The analysed period was divided into three phases with an emphasis on the internal crisis between the years 1998 and 2002. The crisis influenced policy priorities; therefore the perceptions of elements belonging to national identity were changed in order i) to gain victory in the general elections in 2002 and 2005, and ii) to reflect properly the state of German society. Therefore, significant policy shifts were made. These policy changes show how the party successfully integrated societal demands and preferences over the past decade. Thank to this, the CDU incorporated both conservative and liberal elements. This is evident in the case of incorporating liberal elements such as homosexual partnerships while, at the same time, actively stressing the importance of defending national interests.

Analýza vývoje vnímání národní identity německou CDU v letech 1990–2009

The paper aims to explain the development of the perception of national identity of the Christian Democratic Party (CDU), the strongest German political party in the past few decades. The paper focuses on election manifestos for the 1990, 1994, 1998, 2002, 2005, and 2009 elections. For this purpose, each manifesto is examined according to up to five analytical categories – such as values, nation, Europe, threats, and society. These categories explore the party’s perception in a wider context instead of focusing only on direct references to national identity. The analysed period was divided into three phases with an emphasis on the internal crisis between the years 1998 and 2002. The crisis influenced policy priorities; therefore the perceptions of elements belonging to national identity were changed in order i) to gain victory in the general elections in 2002 and 2005, and ii) to reflect properly the state of German society. Therefore, significant policy shifts were made. These policy changes show how the party successfully integrated societal demands and preferences over the past decade. Thank to this, the CDU incorporated both conservative and liberal elements. This is evident in the case of incorporating liberal elements such as homosexual partnerships while, at the same time, actively stressing the importance of defending national interests.

Post-War Saints: 1945–1960

SummaryThis article addresses the appeal of saints and sainthood in the years 1945 to 1960. Part 1 cites the 1957 diary of Susan Sontag, who focused on the cultural power of the Roman Catholic Church and drew attention to three European women: Teresa of Avila, Edith Stein, and Frances Cabrini. Reasons that these three (all Catholic saints) would have been in Susan Sontag's mind in 1957 are explored. In Part 2, wider attention is applied to the year 1957. Writers who were dealing with sainthood (Camus, Kazantzakis, Genet, Kerouac, O'Connor, Werfel, etc.) are discussed, as well as non-Catholics acclaimed as ‘saints’ (Simone Weil, Dietrich Bonhoeffer) and persons admired as ‘living saints’ (Albert Schweitzer, Padre Pio). Part 3 considers the influence of some major canonisations in the inter-war era (e.g., Joan of Arc, Thomas More) and the widespread access to Vatican spectacle afforded by photojournalism and newsreel. Four routes of analysis are pursued: the veneration of saints as a response to wartime suffering and loss; the vigour of the vocabulary of sainthood, uncontaminated by Nazi or Stalinist abuse; the special appeal of the ‘outsider’ saint; and the political interests of the Vatican and Christian Democratic parties.

The Impact of Religion on Voting Behaviour – A Multilevel Approach for Switzerland

AbstractThe traditional cleavages like social class or religion are often reported to have lost explanatory power for the voting decision. Regarding the religious cleavage, the evidence is ambiguous depending on the choice of cases and indicators used. The present study tests the impact of religion for the preference to vote the Christian Democratic Party of Switzerland (CVP) using data from the 2007 and 2011 Swiss national elections. Additional to the inclusion of individual variables, a special focus lies on contextual effects. The estimated hierarchical linear models confirm a prevailing influence of the simple individual factors and the presence of a significant contextual effect. Statistical evidence is also presented for some of the supposed interaction effects between individual and contextual religious variables.

Il sacro come strumento politico: le elezioni del 1948, la Democrazia Cristiana e i manifesti elettorali

During the 1948 electoral campaign in Italy, the Christian Democratic Party (DC) used sacred symbolism as a way to win the majority of the votes. With the help of the Catholic Church and Catholic associations, the Christian Democrats employed a number of sacred devices (ceremonies, processions, traditional devotions) to conquer the Italian popular conscience, which was still tied to emotional and irrational religious beliefs and practices. Political posters provide one of the clearest examples of this successful strategy.

Riccardo Lombardi and the nationalization of electric energy

At the end of 1962, the Italian government decided to nationalize all its electricity enterprises following the example of France and the UK, which had created their state-controlled electricity industry after the Second World War. This was one of the most important reforms decided upon by the first centre-left coalition born in 1962 and based on a collaboration between the Socialists, the Christian Democratic Party and two other small parties. The article focuses on Riccardo Lombardi, a Socialist leader who was one of the leading figures of this reform. Lombardi began his struggle in the late 1940s, denouncing the situation of the private electricity monopolies. In 1962, he collaborated towards creating a public enterprise, strongly defending the new law both from opposition on the right and from criticisms from the Communist Party. However, the conservative forces managed to have considerable changes made to the reform as it was originally conceived. Lombardi failed in his opposition to the decision to provide compensation to enterprises rather than to shareholders, and in his attempt to carry out economic planning using the new state-controlled enterprise to help underdeveloped areas. Lombardi's disappointment with the reform, and his progressive disillusionment over the capabilities of the centre-left coalition, show all the contradictions of this important political experiment.

Unsecular Politics in a Secular Environment: The Case of Germany's Christian Democratic Union Family Policy

Secularisation theory carried two implicit implications for Christian Democratic parties: either they become secular or they cease to exist. Both implications were wrong. Christian Democracy has neither vanished from the political landscape nor has it become fully secular. To secure its survival Christian Democracy has embarked on a delicate balancing act between the modern and the secular. Following up empirically on the thesis of Christian Democratic politics as being modern unsecular, the paper explores how much of the Christian element is still needed to explain Christian Democratic ideology and policy in the twenty-first century. By scrutinising the struggle surrounding Christian Democratic family policy in Germany, the paper finds that the conflict on the repositioning of Christian Democracy in a new cultural environment not only unfolds between secular modernisers and religious traditionalists. It has also led to the re-eruption of the interdenominational cleavage between Protestants and Catholics within the party.

Mafia in the Ballot Box

We study the impact of organized crime on electoral competition. In a theoretical model where parties compete for mafia support, we show that (i) the strongest party is willing to pay the highest price to secure mafia services; (ii) the volume of electoral trade with the mafia increases with political competition and with the efficiency of the mafia organization. Guided by these theoretical predictions, we study in detail the parliamentary elections in Sicily for the period 1946-1992. We document the significant support given by the Sicilian Mafia to the Christian Democratic party, starting at least from the 1970s. This is consistent with our theoretical predictions, as political competition became much tighter during the 1970s and the Sicilian mafia experienced an extensive centralization process started in 1969-70, which increased substantially its control of the territory. We also provide evidence that, in exchange for its electoral support, the Sicilian mafia got economic advantages for its activities in the construction industry.