An analysis of Christian Democratic literature identifying the ideological, social, economic, and political themes advocated by the Christian Democratic Parties. The individual themes are then analyzed in terms of the social, economic, and political goals of the various elements of Latin American society to determine the probability of the acceptance or rejection of the individual theme.
Christian Democracy swept across parts of Latin America, gaining influence in Venezuela in the 1940s, Chile in the 1950s, El Salvador and Guatemala in the 1960s, and Costa Rica and Mexico in the 1980s. This book offers an overview of Christian Democracy in the region underscoring its remarkable diversityand examines the Christian Democratic organizations of Chile and Mexico, which are still major parties today. The concluding section analyzes the demise of formerly significant Christian Democratic parties in El Salvador, Guatemala, Peru, and Venezuela. Christian Democracy in Latin America provides the definitive stufy of the nature, rise, and decline of Christian Democracy in Latin America. The book enriches the broader theoretical literature on political parties by highlighting the distinctive strategic dilemmas parties face, and the distinctive objectives they pursue, in contexts of fragile democracy or of authoritarian regimes.
Christian Democracy swept across parts of Latin America, gaining influence in Venezuela in the 1940s, Chile in the 1950s, El Salvador and Guatemala in the 1960s, and Costa Rica and Mexico in the 1980s. This book offers an overview of Christian Democracy in the region-- underscoring its remarkable diversity--and examines the Christian Democratic organizations of Chile and Mexico, which are still major parties today. The concluding section analyzes the demise of formerly significant Christian Democratic parties in El Salvador, Guatemala, Peru, and Venezuela. Christian Democracy in Latin America provides the definitive stufy of the nature, rise, and decline of Christian Democracy in Latin America. The book enriches the broader theoretical literature on political parties by highlighting the distinctive strategic dilemmas parties face, and the distinctive objectives they pursue, in contexts of fragile democracy or of authoritarian regimes.
In Latin America, evangelical Protestantism poses an increasing challenge to Catholicism's long-established religious hegemony. At the same time, the region is among the most generally democratic outside the West, despite often being labeled as 'underdeveloped.' Scholars disagree whether Latin American Protestantism, as a fast-growing and predominantly lower-class phenomenon, will encourage a political culture that is repressive and authoritarian, or if it will have democratizing effects. Drawing from a range of sources, Evangelical Christianity and Democracy in Latin America provides case studies of five countries: Brazil, Peru, Mexico, Guatemala, and Nicaragua. The contributors, mainly scholars based in Latin America, bring first hand-knowledge to their chapters. The result is a groundbreaking work that explores the relationship between Latin American evangelicalism and politics, its influences, manifestations, and prospects for the future. Evangelical Christianity and Democracy in Latin America is one of four volumes in the series Evangelical Christianity and Democracy in the Global South, which seeks to answer the question: What happens when a revivalist religion based on scriptural orthodoxy participates in the volatile politics of the Third World? At a time when the global-political impact of another revivalist and scriptural religion - Islam - fuels vexed debate among analysts the world over, these volumes offer an unusual comparative perspective on a critical issue: the often combustible interaction of resurgent religion and the developing world's unstable politics.
This work provides a comprehensive examination of Christian Democracy in Latin America from its nineteenth-century origins to the events of the 1990s. Lynch treats the record of Christian Democratic parties in the most crucial areas of economic concern in Latin America: chapters on land reform, nationalization, and the emergence of free market capitalism point up the relationship between politics and economics. Lynch concludes that had Latin America's Christian Democrats followed their own policy prescriptions, both they and Latin America would be better off. Instead, Christian Democrats abandoned their roots in Catholic social thought, embraced statism, and left their countries completely unprepared for the upsurge in liberal economic reform that swept Latin America in the 1980s. This work provides a comprehensive examination of Christian Democracy in Latin America from its nineteenth-century origins to the events of the 1990s. The author treats the record of Christian Democratic parties in the most crucial areas of economic concern in Latin America: chapters on land reform, nationalization, and the emergence of free market capitalism point up the relationship between politics and economics. Lynch concludes that had Latin America's Christian Democrats followed their own policy prescriptions, both they and Latin America would be better off. Instead, Christian Democrats abandoned their roots in Catholic social thought, embraced statism, and left their countries completely unprepared for the upsurge in liberal economic reform that swept Latin America in the 1980s. This work will be of interest to scholars and students in Latin American studies, Third World studies, political economy, comparative politics, and religion and politics.
