What is Christian Democracy?

Politics, Religion and Ideology

Carlo Invernizzi Accetti

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9781108421669
• eBook ISBN: 9781108389754
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: American Government
• Index: Politics & International Relations

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.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title
• Title page
• Copyright information
• Dedication
• Table of contents
• Acknowledgments
• Abbreviations
• Introduction: Why Look at Christian Democracy?
• Part I Conceptual Building Blocks of the Christian Democratic Ideology
• Part II History and Future Prospects of Christian Democracy as a Political Phenomenon
• Conclusion
• Bibliography
• Index