Christian democracy is a political ideology inspired by Christian social teaching to respond to the challenges of contemporary society and politics. Chief amongst these challenges was reconciling Catholicism with democracy, answering the "social question" surrounding capitalism and the working class, and resolving the tensions between church and state. Christian democrats led postwar Western Europe, building the welfare states and constructing the European Union.
Historically it has been a predominantly Catholic movement, and so it has drawn from Catholic social teaching, especially that of Neo-Scholasticism. However it has also drawn from Protestant traditions, such as the Reformed tradition of Neo-Calvinism, alongside Lutheran, Pentecostal, and other denominational traditions of Christianity in various parts of the world.
On the European left-right political spectrum Christian democracy has been difficult to pinpoint as Christian democrats rejected liberal economics and individualism and advocated state intervention, but simultaneously defended private property rights against excessive state intervention. This has meant that Christian democracy has historically been considered centre-left on economics and centre-right on many social, and moral issues. More recently, Christian democrats have positioned themselves as the centre-right, such as the European People's Party, with which most European Christian democratic parties are affiliated, identifies itself as being "the EU's centre-right party". Christian democrats support a "slightly regulated market economy", featuring an effective social security system, a model also known as a social market economy.
Worldwide, many Christian democratic parties are members of the Centrist Democrat International. Examples of major Christian democratic parties include the Christian Democratic Union of Germany, the Dutch Christian Democratic Appeal, the Centre in Switzerland, the Spanish People's Party, the Mexican National Action Party, the Austrian People's Party, and the Christian Democratic Party of Chile.
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Social democracy is a political, social, and economic philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy. As a policy regime, it is described by academics as advocating economic and social interventions to promote social justice within the framework of a liberal-democratic polity and a capitalist-oriented mixed economy. The protocols and norms used to accomplish this involve a commitment to representative and participatory democracy, measures for income redistribution, regulation of the economy in the general interest, and social welfare provisions.
Social liberalism (Sozialliberalismus, socioliberalismo, Sociaalliberalisme) is a political philosophy and variety of liberalism that endorses social justice and the expansion of civil and political rights. It is economically based on the social market economy and views the common good as harmonious with the individual's freedom. Social liberals overlap with social democrats in accepting economic intervention more than other liberals; its importance is considered auxiliary compared to social democrats.
Centre-left politics is the range of left-wing political ideologies that lean closer to the political centre. Major ideologies of the centre-left include social democracy, social liberalism and progressivism. Ideas commonly supported by the centre-left include welfare capitalism, social justice, liberal internationalism, and multiculturalism. Economically, the centre-left supports a mixed economy in a democratic capitalist system, often including economic interventionism, progressive taxation, and the right to unionize.
The geography of “culture-war” is usually addressed as the expression of religious, socio-economical, ethnically and historical divides that characterise territorial constructs. In recent research trends, psychologists suggest this culture-war divisions re ...
2015
In this chapter I expose how direct democracy instruments based on the ballot (referendum, popular initiative, recall), as opposed to assembly based direct democracy, have developed in Switzerland and have been adopted by more than 20 US states as an answe ...