This book examines the role of Catholic parties in inter-war Europe in a systematically pan-European comparative perspective. Specific country chapters address key questions about the parties' membership and social organization; their economic and social policies; and their European and international policies at a time of increasing national and ethnic conflict, and the book includes two survey chapters explaining the origins of political catholicism in 19th century Europe and comparing the parties' interwar development, and two chapters on transnational party contacts. Along with its companion volume, Christian Democracy in Europe Since 1945, also published in 2004, students will have an abundandce of information to guide them through their studies on this fascinating subject.
The history of Catholic political movements has long been a missing dimension of the history of Europe during the twentieth century. Martin Conway explores the fascinating history of Catholic political movements in Europe between 1918 and 1945, demonstrating the crucial role which Catholics played in the rise of fascism in Italy and Germany, the events of the Spanish Civil War and of the Second World War. Drawing on the findings of recent research, Conway shows how Catholic political movements formed a vital element of the political life of Europe during the inter-war years. In countries as diverse as France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Austria, as well as further east in Poland, Slovakia, Croatia, and Lithuania, Catholic political parties flourished. Inspired by the values of Catholicism, these movements fought for their own political ideals; hostile to both liberal democracy and totalitarian fascism, Catholics were a 'third force' in European politics. During the Second World War, Catholic political movements continued to pursue their own goals; some chose to fight alongside the German armies, other groups joined Resistance movements to fight against German oppression and for a new social and political order based on Catholic principles. Catholic Politics in Europe will provide an original key point of reference for twentieth century history, for comparison with fascist and communist movements of the period, and will give insight into the present-day character of Catholicism.
This book examines the role of Catholic parties in inter-war Europe in a systematically pan-European comparative perspective. Specific country chapters address key questions about the parties' membership and social organization; their economic and social policies; and their European and international policies at a time of increasing national and ethnic conflict, and the book includes two survey chapters explaining the origins of political catholicism in 19th century Europe and comparing the parties' interwar development, and two chapters on transnational party contacts. Along with its companion volume, Christian Democracy in Europe Since 1945, also published in 2004, students will have an abundandce of information to guide them through their studies on this fascinating subject.
This book examines the role of Catholic parties in inter-war Europe in a systematically pan-European comparative perspective. Specific country chapters address key questions about the parties' membership and social organization; their economic and social policies; and their European and international policies at a time of increasing national and ethnic conflict, and the book includes two survey chapters explaining the origins of political catholicism in 19th century Europe and comparing the parties' interwar development, and two chapters on transnational party contacts. Along with its companion volume, Christian Democracy in Europe Since 1945, also published in 2004, students will have an abundandce of information to guide them through their studies on this fascinating subject.
Party Systems in East Central Europeanalyzes the formation of political parties in the nations of this region. In the first part, the authors concentrate on the key periods and turning points in this development, connecting them with the democratization of the countries in the region in the last third of the nineteenth century. This includes a look at the period before World War I, between the wars, and particularly in the times after the fall of the communist regimes. The analysis focuses chiefly on the ideological background that gave way to the rise of political parties in the region. In relation to this, the authors base their writing mainly on the socio-political theory of Stein Rokkan. The second part of the book is a political analysis of the key aspects related to party politics. First, the authors examine the ties of political parties to broad social processes, using the classic theories of Giovanni Sartori and Stein Rokkan. Next, they continue with the analysis of the operation of parties within governments, with a special focus on the creation of coalition governments, functioning of coalitions and coalition governance. Last, some defects are reflected upon, as well as unfinished processes related to the fast establishment of political parties in the region, e.g., absence of firm links with social groups, high volatility, instability of parties, etc.
Debates on the role of Christian Democracy in Central and Eastern Europe too often remain strongly tied to national historiographies. With the edited collection the contributing authors aim to reconstruct Christian Democracy’s role in the fall of Communism from a bird's-eye perspective by covering the entire region and by taking “third-way” options in the broader political imaginary of late-Cold War Europe into account. The book’s twelve chapters present the most recent insights on this topic and connect scholarship on the Iron Curtain’s collapse with scholarship on political Catholicism. Christian Democracy and the Fall of Communism offers the reader a two-fold perspective. The first approach examines the efforts undertaken by Western European actors who wanted to foster or support Christian Democratic initiatives in Central and Eastern Europe. The second approach is devoted to the (re-)emergence of homegrown Christian Democratic formations in the 1980s and 1990s. One of the volume’s seminal contributions lies in its documentation of the decisive role that Christian Democracy played in supporting the political and anti-political forces that engineered the collapse of Communism from within between 1989 and 1991.
This book explores the total resistance to Nazism among the Catholic Christian voters of the Zentrum party in the elections in German states in the Interwar period. Kolden explains the unique Catholic resistance by comparing the diverging evolutions of Catholic and Protestant cultures and mentalities since the awakening of German nationalism in the late eighteenth century. During the Empire (1871–1918) both socialists and Catholics were regarded as pariah groups by the dominant non-socialist Protestant majority, and more so after the WWI defeat, when the pariah-parties, together with Protestant liberals, tried to accommodate the new democratic circumstances with their Weimar Constitution. When right-wing radicals, and eventually the Nazis, increased their support—largely on behalf of the rapid shrinking number of liberals—the Catholic church leaders showed a stubborn stance against the rightists, issuing several resolutions of condemnation, whereas no such appeared from their Protestant counterparts. In contrast, many local Protestant clergymen agitated for the Nazi party. The anti-Catholic sentiment, obvious among prominent Nazis, enhanced the antagonism, especially after the publication of Alfred Rosenberg’s The Myth of the 20th Century in 1930. The basic and profound confessional difference appears in the less Christian-profiled agrarian parties: anti-Semitic and right-wing radical Protestant parties confronted by one left-wing and democratic Catholic party. By 1945 the bulk of the former rightist Protestants sided with the Catholics, who reorganized their party to the non-denominational CDU, which has been the mightiest proponent in Europe of the former party’s ambitions of democracy, stability, anti-racism, human rights and European unity.
In Religion and the Struggle for European Union, Brent F. Nelsen and James L. Guth delve into the powerful role of religion in shaping European attitudes on politics, political integration, and the national and continental identities of its leaders and citizens. Nelsen and Guth contend that for centuries Catholicism promoted the universality of the Church and the essential unity of Christendom. Protestantism, by contrast, esteemed particularity and feared Catholic dominance. These differing visions of Europe have influenced the process of postwar integration in profound ways. Nelsen and Guth compare the Catholic view of Europe as a single cultural entity best governed as a unified polity against traditional Protestant estrangement from continental culture and its preference for pragmatic cooperation over the sacrifice of sovereignty. As the authors show, this deep cultural divide, rooted in the struggles of the Reformation, resists the ongoing secularization of the continent. Unless addressed, it threatens decades of hard-won gains in security and prosperity. Farsighted and rich with data, Religion and the Struggle for European Union offers a pragmatic way forward in the EU's attempts to solve its social, economic, and political crises.
KADOC Studies on Religion, Culture and Society, Volume 6Research continues to show that the Christian religion is gradually disappearing from the public, cultural, and social spheres in Western Europe. Even on the individual level, institutionalized religion is becoming increasingly marginalized. New forms of religious life and community, however, may point toward a resurgence of Christian churches in postmodern Europe. This book focuses on the complex transformations Christian churches in Western Europe have undergone since World War II. In English and French.