Christian Democracy

Christian Democracy, moderate right-wing European political movement. Christian Democracy developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, partly to counter growing scepticism regarding the relevance of organized religion, especially with the growth of socialism and communism, and partly to offer a more dynamic and progressive alternative to traditional thinking in Roman Catholicism about domestic and international society. Resistance to fascism boosted the reputation of the movement and secured a leading role for Christian Democracy in rebuilding Western Europe after 1945. Christian Democrat parties were prominent in West Germany, France, and Italy and have recently gained strength in central and eastern Europe. Christian Democracy also developed a large following in Latin America. With the rapid discrediting of communist ideology and forms of government in the late 1980s, Christian Democracy lost its main adversary, but remains a potent force in domestic politics. The movement offers a pragmatic amalgam of democratic liberalism, middle-class conservatism, and concern for stable government, a “social market” economy combining the dynamism of the free market with adequate provision for welfare, and a temperate religiosity which speaks for “traditional” values such as the importance of the family and the role of the Church in private and public life, and against sexual and moral permissiveness and relativism.