The Dark Side of the Christian Democracy

At the end of World War II, Christian democracy celebrated its victories throughout Europe. Prudent statesmen like Konrad Adenauer, Alcide de Gasperi, and Robert Schuman insisted on peace, rebuilding, and stability. However, Christian democracy also had a dark side in postwar Europe. The authoritarian spirit of reactionary political Catholicism continued to hold sway, which was revealed in many Christian democrats' blatant admiration for dictators like Franco and Salazar, or their tense relationship with the free press and the institutions of liberal democracy. With the gradual renunciation of conservative positions – in Germany above all during the Kohl era – Christian democracy ultimately experienced a sustained surge of democratization. But the price it paid was the loss of its ideological core. In this book, Fabio Wolkenstein looks back at the long, eventful history of Christian democracy in Europe and inquires into the authoritarian temptations that it has resisted but also given into, thereby tracing an arc to the present: What strategies are Christian democratic parties employing today to gain power?