Christian Democracy

In ogni congresso del Partito popolare italiano fu sempre riservato spazio alla questione scolastica, divenuta nei primi anni Venti uno dei principali temi di scontro politico.
In essa – in particolare nell’istruzione professionale, campo in cui i cattolici furono all’avanguardia - don Luigi Sturzo vedeva uno strumento privilegiato per l’elevazione delle classi subalterne e uno spazio di libertà da difendere dall’invadenza dello Stato. Nella scuola insomma andavano a incontrarsi le principali battaglie del popolarismo: l’autonomia municipale, il sostegno alle classi più povere, la difesa della libertà religiosa.
Questo libro mette in luce il maturare di tale consapevolezza nella vicenda biografica e negli scritti di don Luigi Sturzo, dagli anni in cui fu prima studente e poi insegnante di seminario, fino a quando, ormai anziano, intervenne a proposito del dibattito in corso all’Assemblea costituente, passando per il periodo della segreteria del PPI e per il lungo tempo trascorso in esilio.
Pochi tra i suoi biografi hanno ricordato che tra il 1912 e il 1917 era stato presidente regionale della “Nicolò Tommaseo” siciliana, l’associazione dei maestri cattolici, e che fu a capo del Segretariato “Pro Schola” dell’Unione popolare e membro del Consiglio provinciale scolastico di Catania, maturando così una diretta conoscenza dei problemi della scuola italiana.

Resumen Tras el establecimiento de la dictadura chilena del general Augusto Pinochet, las fuerzas políticas desafiaron al autoritarismo con una sólida actividad política y una poderosa defensa de los derechos humanos y del Estado de Derecho. Pudo así definirse el clima histórico, político y jurídico de una transición pacífica a la democracia.

This article seeks to demonstrate the heuristic utility of an ideal-type of “Christian Democracy” to understand how the relations between politics and religion are structured within the framework of the treaty that founds the European Union. The first part is dedicated to a theoretical reconstruction of this ideal-type of “Christian Democracy”, empahsizing its specificity with respect to the notions of “secularism” and “laicité”. The second part proposes a reading of the treaty of Lisbon through the theoretical prism offered by these three notions, highlighting the elements that resonate with the first and therefore challenge the idea that the European Union can be adequately described as secular or laique.

With its use of contemporary events, location shots, and a plot that mixes comedy, tragedy, and passion play, Roberto Rossellini's 1945 film Rome, Open City founded the movement known as " Italian Neo-Realism. " The film vividly presents the Christian teaching on the relation between religion and politics. Rossellini asserts that a Christian Europe can be reconstructed only on a foundation of charity rather than hate, vengeance, or even justified punishment for Nazi crimes. It is not on the basis of tales of resistance that Italians and Europeans can be reborn, Rossellini argues, but on the basis of the Christian command to " love your enemies. " European rebirth means the installation of a moral order that makes parenthood feasible and respectable. By reflecting on Rossellini's masterpiece, I examine the triumph and the tragedy of the Christian Democratic Europe that Rome, Open City foretold and helped to found.

Depuis près de trente ans, les fédérations européennes de partis font partie du paysage politique européen. Les premières élections du Parlement européen au suffrage universel direct (1979) avaient stimulé les recherches sur les groupements partisans transnationaux qui s'étaient formés dans cette perspective. Mais l'enthousiasme scientifique céda vite la place à l'oubli et il fallut attendre l'accélération de l'intégration européenne suite à l'Acte unique (1988) et au traité de Maastricht (1993) pour que la science politique s'y intéresse à nouveau. Au terme de la conférence intergouvernementale 2000 révisant l'article 138 A du traité sur l'Union européenne pour lui substituer l'article 191 du traité de Nice, il était nécessaire de faire le point sur la place des fédérations de partis dans l'Union européenne. Les auteurs du présent ouvrage les analysent sur les plans historique, politique et organisationnel. Ils mettent en évidence leur contribution à l'édification d'un système politique supranational en devenir.



La première partie du livre est consacrée aux controverses et aux débats : il y est question, entre autres, des approches théoriques possibles, des contraintes institutionnelles qui pèsent sur le développement des fédérations européennes de partis et des conditions et modalités d'une reconnaissance éventuelle.

Dans la deuxième partie, les auteurs analysent l’organisation des cinq structures partisanes constituées à ce jour : le parti des socialistes européens, le parti populaire européen, le parti européen des libéraux, démocrates et réformateurs, la Fédération européenne des partis verts, le parti démocratique des peuples d'Europe/Alliance libre européenne. Enfin, la dernière partie s'attache à l'influence de ces fédérations sur le processus de décision, sur les facteurs qui la conditionnent, sur la formation du consensus, sur le rôle des partis nationaux et les relations qu'elles entretiennent avec le Conseil européen, le Conseil des ministres, la Commission européenne et les groupes politiques au Parlement européen.

In Ungarn wickelt Viktor Orbáns Fidesz-Partei gerade die Demokratie ab und beruft sich dabei besonders emphatisch auf die christdemokratische Tradition. Ein ungehöriger Affront, könnte man meinen. Aber wie ernst war es christdemokratischen Parteien in der Vergangenheit eigentlich mit der liberalen Demokratie?

Nach Ende des Zweiten Weltkriegs feierte die Christdemokratie in Europa ihren Siegeszug. Dabei setzten sich besonnene Staatsmänner wie Konrad Adenauer, Alcide de Gasperi oder Robert Schuman auf einem vormals von Krieg und Gewalt geprägten Kontinent nachdrücklich für Frieden, Wiederaufbau und Stabilität ein. Dennoch hatte die Christdemokratie im Nachkriegseuropa auch eine dunkle Seite: Der autoritäre Geist des reaktionären politischen Katholizismus wirkte in ihr weiter, was sich etwa an der unverhohlenen Bewunderung vieler Christdemokraten für Diktatoren wie Franco und Salazar oder einem angespannten Verhältnis zur freien Presse und den Institutionen der liberalen Demokratie offenbarte. Durch die schrittweise Abkehr von konservativen Positionen – in Deutschland vor allem in der Ära Kohl vollzogen – erfuhr die Christdemokratie schließlich einen nachhaltigen Demokratisierungsschub. Allerdings war der Preis dafür eine ideologische Entkernung. Fabio Wolkenstein blickt in seinem Buch auf die lange und wechselvolle Geschichte der Christdemokratie in Europa zurück und fragt, welchen autoritären Versuchungen sie widerstanden, aber auch welchen sie nachgegeben hat. Dabei spannt er einen weiten Bogen bis zur Gegenwart: Welche Strategien des Machterhalts wählen christdemokratische Parteien heute?

On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Cuban crisis, this article investigates one of its less studied aspects: the reaction to that international crisis of October 1962 within the Christian-Democracy (DC), the ruling political party of Italy. The article presents new evidence from Italian and American archives.

En l'espace de quinze ans, la fédération européenne de partis qui rassemblait les formations démocrates chrétiennes – le parti populaire européen (PPE) – a vécu une mutation politique, idéologique et organisationnelle fondamentale. Centré à l'origine sur les formations démocrates chrétiennes, le PPE s'est ouvert à des partis aux sensibilités conservatrice voire libérale ou nationaliste dans les pays de l'Union européenne et dans les Etats qui sont amenés à la rejoindre sous peu. L'objectif de ce livre est d'examiner cette problématique à l'aune des mutations de la démocratie chrétienne et des partis démocrates chrétiens, d'une part, à celle du conservatisme et des partis conservateurs, de l'autre. A-t-on affaire à une simple opération de stratégie politique configurée au système politique européen ? Est-ce le reflet d'une indistinction de plus en plus manifeste entre démocrates chrétiens et conservateurs ? Ou, de manière plus radicale, assiste-t-on à l'extinction d'une famille politique – la démocrate chrétienne – ou à son absorption par la famille conservatrice ? Pour aborder ces thématiques, l'ouvrage rassemble des contributions de spécialistes internationaux. Ils retracent l'histoire de la démocratie chrétienne et du conservatisme et en analysent les caractéristiques et les évolutions.

La creación de la amenaza roja recorre el fenómeno del anticomunismo en Chile, desde sus primeras manifestaciones en la segunda mitad del siglo XIX hasta las elecciones de 1964. En ese amplio espectro temporal, el libro aporta dos tesis centrales e interrelacionadas. En primer lugar, el autor plantea que la elección presidencial de 1964 fue el momento de mayor proyección pública del anticomunismo en Chile. En aquella ocasión se instaló un enorme aparato propagandístico con abundante financiamiento extranjero para oponerse a la candidatura de Salvador Allende. Las imágenes, relatos y símbolos anticomunistas utilizados entonces respondieron a la convergencia del lenguaje de la política mundial en tiempos de Guerra Fría y a la propia iniciativa de actores locales en un contexto de fuerte polarización política. La «campaña del terror», como se le conoció entonces, fue un momento especialmente agudo y radical de divulgación de un anticomunismo de múltiples significados en la esfera pública chilena, y que tendría consecuencias duraderas en la forma en que los chilenos practicaron y entendieron la política en los años siguientes.
Dicho anticomunismo no era nuevo. El autor, en segundo término, sostiene que el anticomunismo fue un elemento estructural del desarrollo político chileno en el siglo XX, en la medida que condicionó los términos del debate público e influyó visiblemente en el discurso político de una serie de fuerzas que, de diferentes modos, adhirieron a distintas variantes de esta polaridad ideológica. Esta «tradición anticomunista» se remonta al menos a principios del siglo XX. En último término, la tradición anticomunista chilena alcanzaría su cénit durante la dictadura de Augusto Pinochet, momento en el cual el anticomunismo adquirió un estatus de virtual ideología de Estado.

C'est peu dire que les élections du 13 juin 1999 ont constitué un véritable tremblement de terre pour la famille sociale chrétienne. En Flandre, le Christelijke Volkspartij (CVP) est passé sous la barre des 25% et a été devancé, à la Chambre, par les libéraux. Dans l'espace politique francophone, le parti social chrétien (PSC) est devenu la quatrième formation - la neuvième de l'échiquier politique belge -; derrière le parti socialiste (PS), la Fédération PRL-FDF-MCC et Ecolo. Avec à peine 16,5% des voix en Wallonie, le parti social chrétien a subi un revers cuisant, confirmé dans la région bruxelloise. Ces deux échecs électoraux ont contribué à un autre bouleversement : le renvoi dans l'opposition des deux formations sociales chrétiennes. L'événement est de taille. Depuis 1884, catholiques, d'abord, sociaux chrétiens ensuite, n'ont connu cette vicissitude qu'à deux reprises : entre mi-1945 et le printemps 1947, et durant la législature 1954-1958. Ces changements capitaux pour la famille sociale chrétienne méritaient indubitablement une réflexion et un examen approfondis. Telles sont les ambitions de cet ouvrage, centré sur le parti social chrétien, mais avec une référence fréquente à son alter ego flamand, l'actuel CD&V. Les transformations du PSC sont analysées sous plusieurs angles : historique, programmatique, organisationnel, politique ou encore électoral. A l'heure de la réflexion sur la recomposition politique en Belgique et de l'introspection dans les rangs sociaux chrétiens, ce livre vient à point nommé.

Rimasto sinora sconosciuto ai più, Sergio Paronetto (1911-1945) è stato uno dei più brillanti intellettuali cattolici del Novecento e il protagonista di vicende importanti nella storia dell'economia italiana tra le due guerre. La sua biografia e la sua riflessione sono qui ricostruite per la prima volta in maniera specifica grazie all'esame di una vasta documentazione inedita, ricca di novità per la ricerca storiografica su momenti cruciali nella storia del movimento cattolico, dell'economia e della politica del Paese. La finissima analisi interiore, l'animazione di un cenacolo culturale, il ruolo svolto come manager dell'Iri, la collaborazione con Giovanni Battista Montini, con Alcide De Gasperi e con gli altri personaggi della rinascita democratica e della Resistenza: in queste pagine torna alla luce il fascino di una personalità che conquistò tutti i suoi interlocutori e il significato di un ambizioso progetto per la crescita materiale e civile dell'Italia.

This note reflects briefly on the peculiarly ‘Sturzian’ name which the priest of Caltagirone, famous politician and political scholar, decided on for the party he founded in 1919: the Partito Popolare Italiano. In fact, Don Luigi Sturzo, loaded the three words which made up the name of his party, with the expectations and hope, the tensions and claims which Italian Catholicism as a whole had nourished during the long decades following the unification of Italy up to the time of the Great War: expectations, hopes, tensions and claims which seemed to have been exhausted in the Second World War but which, still today, remain urgent and valid.

Professore universitario e partigiano, politico e giurista, monaco e padre della Costituzione, Giuseppe Dossetti (1913-1996) è stato uno dei protagonisti della scena pubblica del Novecento italiano. Questo libro ne ricostruisce con rigore la biografia, segnata in apparenza da improvvise cesure e cambi di rotta, ma in realtà percorsa da un'incessante e autentica ricerca di conformità al Vangelo dentro la complessità della storia.

Versión digital de nuestro capítulo sobre las relaciones entre la Iglesia, los políticos católicos y el régimen militar venezolano entre 1948-1958. Examinamos los desencuentros y reexaminamos algunos de los mitos legitimadores desde una perspectiva crítica, llegando a la conclusión que, pese a lo comúnmente creído, la Iglesia accedió a la democracia liberal con retraso, frente a la más audaz postura de los políticos demócratacristianos.

The aim of this PhD thesis is to review and re-envisage the foundation and development of the European People’s Party (EPP). This Thesis is based on primary research data aiming to inspire the academic discussion on the Europarties within the European integration context. Starting from its creation and early-days period, in the 1970s, as the ‘party’ of the Christian Democratic parties from member states of the European Communities and going through the subsequent integration of political parties from Western and, later on, Eastern European countries, in the 1980s and 1990s to its status at the early 2000s.
The originally founded ‘Christian Democratic organisation’ was transformed to a political family, or a ‘network’, of centre-right parties including Christian democratic, conservative and like minded parties. We will attempt to understand why this change took place, under what reasons, dependent and independent variables, normative conditions, within the historical context. We will follow the timeline of events in the wider context of the European integration that has been underlining, historically, our subject.
Our Thesis is structured in two axes: A timeline of ten chapters on the one hand and four hypotheses that we are putting forward. We have also constructed and put in annex information that can be helpful for further research. Highlights are on Annex 8 the list of contents that we have reconstructed from the historical archive of the EPP. First we walk through the historical timeline:
In “Chapter 1: History” we start from the years preceding to the creation of the EPP. We go back to the origins of transnational party cooperation walking through to the discussions in the 1970s for launching new European party federations. We took time to explore not just the EPP historical archive (Codification IX-007-XXX) but also the EUCD archive (IX-004-XXX) and even some volumes from the NEI historical archive (IX-002-XXX) mainly to get familiar with the level of integration of the earlier organisations and historical period in the 1950s and the 1960s.
In “Chapter 2: the creation of the EPP” the reader will find presentation of historical archive accumulated from both archive documents and interviews. We aim to better understand all the aspects behind the creation of the EPP in 1976. We reveal the underlining factors cultivating the desire for a new political organisation, the map of interest of the key players and why it finally kicked off the ground in 1976.
In “Chapter 3: the enlargement of the 1980s” we move on the 1980s, the change of leadership twice in the EPP, in 1984 and 1987, the enlargement of the EPP with new parties from western Europe and the talks about opening up towards the Conservatives.
In “Chapter 4: the opening up of Eastern Europe” we discuss the opening up of the EPP towards the countries of the former Eastern block in central and eastern Europe and the major historical events of the collapse of communism and the emerging new European countries. 
In “Chapter 5: the enlargement to the conservative parties” we explore the opening up to more conservative parties in the 1990s, especially towards the 1994 enlargement, the difficult Scandinavian conservative parties.
In “Chapter: 6 Merger with the EUCD and the EDU” we follow the developments between the EPP and its sister orgsanisations. We put forward all the evidence that demonstrates the core strategy of the EPP to streamline the cooperation in the centre right into one single organisation despite the successful history and record of the EDU and the ‘parent organisation’ background of the EUCD.
In “Chapter 7: Understanding and assessing the EPP enlargement” we touch upon the Europeanisation concept, particularly in Eastern Europe and we contending that it has had different implications to different parties from different countries. Aiming to address these phenomena, we are introducing the term “inhomogenus Europeanisation” to capture this diversity of effects in the political reality of the actors involved. We are further assessing the enlargement beyond Christian Democracy in the context of its historical decline.
Finally, we are reviewing the role of the key protagonists and the German actors in particular, who from a minority position to the right side of the EPP spectrum in the 1970s and 80s it became the dominant power in the centre of the EPP from the 1990s hitherto.
In “Chapter 8: The EPP beyond 1999” we are discussing the developments in the 2000s, the years of reaping the fruits of its enlargement strategy in terms of its parliamentary and party size. After the enlargements of 2004 and 2007, where the EU moved from 15 to 27 member states the EPP continued its restructuring and repositioning. In every single country of the EU enlargement, the EPP had already acquired the most important center-right political party in its ranks.
In “Chapter 9: Europarties and European integration” we are discussing the role of European parties within the European Union institutions and decision making. We are also discussing the widely debated concept of politicization of the Union from the perspective of European parties. This discussion is relevant today in the period of the ongoing financial trouble in the Eurozone and how the crisis has affected the role of the European parties.

Finally, in “Chapter 10: Summary and end remarks” we are putting together the findings from our research findings and secondary sources reading and drawing conclusions on our topic.

The second axis of this work, running parallel to the Timeline, is to contemplate four hypotheses. Each one of them has come out of the primary research for the historical period involved, while it does revisit aspects of what we know today.
The first hypothesis focuses on the foundation period in the 1970s where we will present evidence that the EPP was not founded as a loose federation of parties that would evolve over time and parallel to the gradual integration of the European institutions. Insofar the European Communities did evolve gradually from the mid-1970s to the early 2000s following Treaty reform that delegated more and more powers and competences to the Community level, there is a broader understanding that the EPP followed a similar pattern of integration. We are challenging this universal idea with facts and figures from the historical archive that are probably brought about for the first time.
The second hypothesis is related to the enlargement of the EPP towards non-Christian democratic parties. We will present that the original idea was not to enlarge to parties from other, albeit neighboring, political traditions. Instead, the original expectation was that these parties would adopt, would adhere to Christian Democracy. The idea of enlargement did not exist in the EPP culture and language during its early days in the 1980s and even early 1990s! Surprising or not, prospective members cooperated with this attitude and declared their adherence to the Christian Democratic ideals, regardless of their differing political culture and diverging national context. This applies to parties from both western and eastern Europe.
The third hypothesis reveals the strategy of the EPP towards its enlargement during the 1980s and 1990s, in particular as regards the emerging of new democracies in the central and eastern parts of Europe after the collapse of Communism. Opposite to what we knew up to now the EPP designed and implemented an active policy of proliferation of Christian Democracy towards the new countries and invested significant human and material resources in this direction. We have had very little information before about this but the evidence we bring in is strong and sound. Given that Christian Democracy was already in decline in western Europe in the late 1980s and the early 1990s this hypothesis says a lot about the culture and the internal dynamics of the EPP. The strategy originated and was inspired by the case of Spain in the late 1980s with the creation of the Partido Popular. Following Spain, the most difficult case of the British Conservatives was explored with a long-lasting project that took over two years to complete with the 1992 agreement between the EPP group and the European Democratic Group in the European Parliament. From the early 1990s, a large project of going east was deployed towards the new democracies.
Last but not least, our fourth hypothesis contemplates the comparative perspective of the EPP today with its early days. Contrary to what is widely accepted, even from skeptics, the EPP today is not more integrated than it was in the early days. The small number of members, the high degree of ideological cohesion and the core ideals of Christian Democracy were the three key factors that, aggregated together, created a highly integrated status. Especially given the broader loose integration of the European Communities. This hypothesis can have significant implications that challenge traditional theories' content about the progress of integration.

The article discusses the recent electoral success of the German Green Party and the radical right wing populist "Alternative für Deutschland", respectively. It shows how their electoral fortunes are related to each other as well as the severe difficulties of the Christian and Social Democratic "Volksparteien" to defend their dominant position in the German political system. Greens and AfD, while being polar opposites are nevertheless intimately connected in their respective political fates because their enmity will determine the fade of "bourgeois" politics in Germany for years to come.

This paper examines the evolution of the political cult of Saint Francis from the post-WWII period to the 1980s, by focusing on the Sacred Convent of Assisi, in particular on the national celebrations of October 4 and the magazine «San Francesco patrono d’Italia». My investigation points out the dialectics between the national Catholic use and the pacifist reading of the saint. In the age of Pius xii, the cult remained marked by a clerical fascist legacy and manifested the objective of a Christian democracy with hierocratic and anti-communist boundaries. Then, the Council aggiornamento launched a reorientation towards the brotherhood of the peoples and ecumenical dialogue, making Francis a global pop icon. But it was necessary to wait for the Second Cold War climate and the end of the season of terrorism for the friars of the Sacred Convent to approach pacifist activism. That did not exclude again putting forward the Italianness of the Poverello, in order to reassert the country’s Christian roots and the church’s conditioning of the political agenda.

Capítulo del libro Arráiz, Rafael (2016, ed.): "Rafael Caldera: Una visión Plural". Caracas, Universidad Metropolitana, Ediciones B.

Recogemos las críticas de Rafael Caldera, fundador de la democracia cristiana en Venezuela, a la visión liberal de la sociedad capitalista, haciendo énfasis en sus críticas al percibido consenso neoliberal de las décadas de 1980 y 1990.

Die politischen Parteien Österreichs als Entscheidungsträger des Staates : eine Vorstellung, die im cisleithanischen Staat innerhalb der Habsburgermonarchie sowohl verfassungstheoretisch als auch in der Verfassungspraxis unmöglich erschien. Saßen doch die Parteien im Reichsrat, der in der Gesetzgebung gegenüber dem Kaiser mit dessen absolutem Veto sowie dem § 14-Notverordnungsrecht eine weit untergeordnete Rolle spielte, während die Regierung dem Reichsrat nicht verantwortlich war, da diese nur vom Kaiser ernannt und damit abhängig war, während der Kaiser selbst ohnehin für all seine Handlungen niemandem verantwortlich war.
Mit der bevorstehenden militärischen Niederlage Österreich-Ungarns im Ersten Weltkrieg, dem letzten Versuch Kaiser Karls I. im Oktober 1918, die Monarchie zu retten sowie aufgrund des Zerfalls der Habsburgermonarchie infolge der Abspaltung einzelner Nationalstaaten wurden die Sozialdemokraten, die Christlichsozialen und die deutschnationalen/deutschliberalen Parteien zu Entscheidungsträgern in einem neuen kleinen Staat, über dessen Staatsform sie nun entscheiden mussten.
In diesem Beitrag soll der Entwicklungsprozess der Parteien bzgl. der Entscheidung für die Republik im außen- und innenpolitischen Kontext beleuchtet werden

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.

Pasture explores how Christian Democrats conceived of " Europe " in the 1940s and 1950s, in the fledgling years of European integration. In particular, he reconstructs both continuities and discontinuities across the traditional caesura in twentieth-century European history: World War II. Pasture defines shifting trends in how Catholics and Christian Democrats imagined " Europe " ; this allows him to map a new spatial geography of European Christian Democracy. The outcome de-centers the confessional commitments of well-known Western Europeans like Robert Schuman and Konrad Adenauer, instead creating a space for a pluralistic understanding of " Europe " , with varying confessional and ideological commitments. Pasture's argument offers a foundation for understanding how activists from across the Iron Curtain, too, could forge a European identity in the first decades of the Cold War.

In this article, we argue that an analysis of the conflict around the nature and limits of European integration that arose between Catholic and Protestant Christian Democrats in the postwar era can shed new light on the expansionary dynamics that gradually came to characterise the project of European integration. The former framed the unification of Europe as a relatively exclusionary cultural-civilizational endeavour, while the latter favoured a more inclusive conception of Europe that emphasised free trade over cultural homogeneity. Focusing specifically on Germany, we suggest that the eventual resolution of the intra-party struggle between the two camps in the early 1970s was a crucial enabler for including more and more countries into the European project. For it was only thereafter that Catholic Christian Democrats began supporting the expansion of European integration beyond the core Europe of the original Six, with geopolitical concerns gradually crowding out cultural ones.

Tutkimuksen kohteena on kristillisen sionismin esiintyminen Suomen Kristillisessä Liitossa (SKL) 1970-luvulla. Kristillinen sionismi on aate, jossa Israelin valtion tukemista perustellaan kristillisellä uskolla. Etenkin Yhdysvalloissa kristillinen sionismi on vaikuttanut maan Lähi-idän politiikkaan voimakkaasti. Sama aate esiintyy myös Suomen kristillisissä liikkeissä, mutta sen vaikutusta ei ole aiemmin tutkittu.

Varsinainen tutkimuskysymykseni on kaksiosainen: esiintyikö SKL:n piirissä kristillistä sionismia, ja miten se ilmeni käytännössä? Tutkimuksen aineistona ovat puolueen arkisto, ohjelmat ja äänenkannattaja, Kristityn Vastuu -lehti, sekä valtiopäiväasiakirjat ja haastattelut.

Vuonna 1958 perustettu SKL, nykyisin Suomen Kristillisdemokraatit, sai ensimmäisen paikkansa eduskunnassa vuonna 1970. SKL oli juuriltaan protestipuolue, joka nousi vastustamaan yhteiskunnassa näkemäänsä maallistumista ja moraalista rappiota. 1970-luvun loppuun mennessä se oli saanut kolme perättäistä vaalivoittoa eduskuntavaaleissa, kirjoittanut ohjelmansa ja vakiinnuttanut muutenkin asemansa suomalaisessa politiikassa. Tuona aikana puolue keskittyi ennen kaikkea sosiaalisiin kysymyksiin ja sai eniten julkisuutta vapaamman alkoholi- ja aborttilainsäädännön leppymättömänä vastustajana. Ulkopolitiikassa puolue pyrki seuraamaan vallitsevaa linjaa ja pysytteli pääsääntöisesti erossa ulkopolitiikasta. Tutkimuksessa osoitan, että SKL aktiivisesti ja tietoisesti poikkesi vallitsevasta ulkopolitiikasta yhden asian suhteen: puolustaakseen Israelin valtiota. Syy tähän oli uskonnollinen.

Uskonnolliselta pohjalta nouseva Israelin puolustaminen, kristillinen sionismi, ilmestyi SKL:n ulkopoliittiseen ohjelmaan jäsenjärjestöjen aloitteesta vuonna 1974 ja vakiinnutti myöhemmin asemansa myös puolueen yleis- ja periaateohjelmassa. 1970-luvulla SKL:n vaikuttajiin kuului monia kristillisiä sionisteja, puheenjohtajaa myöten, ja puolueen äänenkannattaja otti säännöllisesti Israelin puolesta kantaa käyttämällä voimakkaan uskonnollista argumentointia. Eri puolueaktiivit perustelivat Israelin tukemista eri tavoin, mutta puolueen sisällä Israelin asia ei nostanut esiin kritiikkiä eikä kaivannut edes perusteluja.

Suomen Kristillinen Liitto oli ohjelmiensa, äänenkannattajansa ja useiden jäsentensä puolesta kristillissionistinen puolue. Tämä ei kuitenkaan johtanut sitä sanoista tekoihin, muutamaa lähinnä Parlamenttien välisessä liitossa (IPU) tapahtunutta poikkeusta lukuun ottamatta. Israelin asia ei loppujen lopuksi ollut kotimaan sosiaalisiin kysymyksiin keskittyneellä puolueella tärkeimmällä sijalla, eikä ulkopolitiikka ensisijaisesti eduskunnan päätettävissä.

This paper explores the relationship between ideology, the state and the transnational as it bears on European integration.  Though typically studied in national contexts, ideologies and their clash have been Europe-wide since their emergence.  As I argue, the European Union (EU) can be understood both as the continuation of these long-standing cross-border dynamics, and as the attempt to supersede them.  Contemporary developments renew this dialectic.  By exploring how ideology and European integration entwine, the paper underlines the value of a research agenda of heightened importance as the ideological hegemony of recent decades breaks down.

Der „Historische Kompromiss“ als Belastung für die Beziehungen der Democrazia Cristiana zur CDU und den britischen Konservativen, in: Historisch-Politische Mitteilungen. Archiv für Christlich-Demokratische Politik, 24. Jahrgang, 2017, S. 59–85.

›Merkelism‹ is defined as a political equilibrium sustaining Germany's traditionally low-conflict political culture. To explain how it came to be and persist, one has to take into account not only Angela Merkel's governing style but also how it interacted with intraparty and inter-party competition, the general public and arenas of European and international politics. ›Merkelism‹ lasted as the style and substance of Angela Merkel's governments were not challenged by movement achieving extensive feedback, which is what the AfD managed after the 2015 ›refugee crisis‹. Still, the future of the German party system remains uncertain, as a lot can happen in the interregnum instituted by the disruption that marked the 2017 election.

This paper develops a theoretical framework for understanding the way in which the relations between politics and religion are structured institutionally at the level of the European Union. The argument advanced is that, although it is common to assume that European institutions provide a bulwark for the protection of 'secularism' and 'laı¨cité', a more adequate category for describing the way in which these relations are structured within the framework of the European Union as it exists today is offered by an ideal-typical notion of 'Christian Democracy'. In order to substantiate this thesis, the paper focuses on the discussion of a number of concrete features of the institutional structure of the European Union that do not fit with traditional definitions of secularism and laı¨cité, but resonate with the way in which the notion of 'Christian Democracy' was theorized in the work of some of its most representative exponents, such as Luigi Sturzo, Alcide De Gasperi and Jacques Maritain.

Just before the general elections organized in year 2000, the PNTCD was rocked by a series of scandals and internal conflicts from which it never recovered. Soon afterwards, the party was reduced to a shadow of its former self when a large number of its members migrated to other political formations or decided to renounce politics altogether. This article examines the internal squabbles in an effort to explain the party's demise. A lengthier, earlier version included a case-study of the Constanta local organization. Cited in Sfera politicii and the Journal of Theoretical Politics.

The notion of 'Christian Europe' has returned with a vengeance in recent times. It figures prominently in the political rhetoric of conservative nationalists, who link appeals to Europe's Christian heritage and identity to avowedly illiberal political projects. This paper examines this revived idea of Christian Europe by contrasting it with the meanings that prominent Christian Democratic leaders ascribed to the term in the postwar era. This contrast is insightful because it reveals what is distinctive about present understandings of Christian Europe, and it is politically relevant because some of the most committed contemporary proponents of Christian Europe claim to be 'true' Christian Democrats. Using Ernst-Wolfgang Böckenförde's work on the emergence of the modern state as a broad analytical frame, I show that today's visions of Christian Europe are more modern, statist and secular than their postwar counterparts.

Para los nacionalistas católicos y los sectores integristas de la Iglesia el parlamento era una institución perimida, indiscutiblemente unida al liberalismo que era preciso enterrar en el pasado. Por el contrario, entre los demócratas cristianos las posturas eran más variadas y, por lo general, moderadamente optimistas sobre las posibilidades de reformarlo para adecuarlo a las necesidades de la reforma social católica. En este artículo nos ocuparemos precisamente de cómo estos sectores-especialmente el Partido Popular de Buenos Aires-concibieron al parlamento y sus posibles articulaciones con el corporativismo católico durante la década de 1930.

The constitutional politics of the European Union have been intensely debated in recent times. A key concern, voiced both within the academy and at street level, is how citizens could be endowed with the ability to shape, revise and legitimise evolving constitutional settlements. This paper begins by discussing recent accounts of ‘constituent power’ in the EU that seek to offer guidance in this respect. It argues that these accounts are normatively insightful but ultimately stop short of providing a viable model of constitutional agency. The remainder of the paper then aims to examine what such a model could look like, looking for inspiration to the much- neglected political practice of transnational partisanship. Specifically, the paper examines the transnationally coordinated constitution-making efforts of Christian Democratic partisans in the founding period of the EU, suggesting that there is much to learn from these efforts as far as EU constitutional politics is concerned.