Erik Jones
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199208333
- eISBN:
- 9780191708985
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199208333.003.0005
- Subject:
- Political Science, Comparative Politics, Political Economy
This chapter analyses the adjustment strategies pursued by Wilfried Martens in Belgium (Poupehan) and Ruud Lubbers in the Netherlands (Wassenaar). It shows how they were able to restart price-incomes ...
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This chapter analyses the adjustment strategies pursued by Wilfried Martens in Belgium (Poupehan) and Ruud Lubbers in the Netherlands (Wassenaar). It shows how they were able to restart price-incomes policy within the context of the European monetary system and so to recapture competitiveness by depreciating the real exchange rate. It also explains how difficult this policy was to initiate politically. Once started, however, the policy was both effective and easy to maintain. What was more difficult to control was the political reactions. When Martens and Lubbers lost power in the 1990s, they augured the end of Christian Democratic hegemony in both countries — in the Netherlands by 1994 and in Belgium by 1999.Less
This chapter analyses the adjustment strategies pursued by Wilfried Martens in Belgium (Poupehan) and Ruud Lubbers in the Netherlands (Wassenaar). It shows how they were able to restart price-incomes policy within the context of the European monetary system and so to recapture competitiveness by depreciating the real exchange rate. It also explains how difficult this policy was to initiate politically. Once started, however, the policy was both effective and easy to maintain. What was more difficult to control was the political reactions. When Martens and Lubbers lost power in the 1990s, they augured the end of Christian Democratic hegemony in both countries — in the Netherlands by 1994 and in Belgium by 1999.
Roberto Papini
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780231150071
- eISBN:
- 9780231526623
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231150071.003.0010
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter looks into the pluralist-democratic tradition of monism that has emerged in Catholicism. It traces the development of this Christian Democracy by briefly exploring the thought of three ...
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This chapter looks into the pluralist-democratic tradition of monism that has emerged in Catholicism. It traces the development of this Christian Democracy by briefly exploring the thought of three twentieth-century Catholic thinkers: Luigi Sturzo, Jacques Maritain, and Pope Pius XII. These thinkers rejected the aggrandizement of power by the state, seen especially in fascism that took hold after the First World War. Accepting the legitimacy of a secular politics, yet refusing to see purely procedural democracy as the only alternative to statism, Christian Democracy rejects individualism and social contractarianism. The tradition instead proposes democracy that upholds personalism, social solidarity, and subsidiarity or a strong role for mediating institutions between state and citizen. As such, it may point to a direction for other traditional religions, similarly concerned to reject purely procedural democracy and a public order free of religious values, to accept modern pluralism.Less
This chapter looks into the pluralist-democratic tradition of monism that has emerged in Catholicism. It traces the development of this Christian Democracy by briefly exploring the thought of three twentieth-century Catholic thinkers: Luigi Sturzo, Jacques Maritain, and Pope Pius XII. These thinkers rejected the aggrandizement of power by the state, seen especially in fascism that took hold after the First World War. Accepting the legitimacy of a secular politics, yet refusing to see purely procedural democracy as the only alternative to statism, Christian Democracy rejects individualism and social contractarianism. The tradition instead proposes democracy that upholds personalism, social solidarity, and subsidiarity or a strong role for mediating institutions between state and citizen. As such, it may point to a direction for other traditional religions, similarly concerned to reject purely procedural democracy and a public order free of religious values, to accept modern pluralism.
Marc Mulholland
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199653577
- eISBN:
- 9780191744594
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199653577.003.0013
- Subject:
- History, World Modern History, History of Ideas
Post-war Western Europe converged towards an American model of high-wage consumerist capitalism, considerably attenuating class conflict. In Western Europe, Christian democracy and Social Democracy ...
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Post-war Western Europe converged towards an American model of high-wage consumerist capitalism, considerably attenuating class conflict. In Western Europe, Christian democracy and Social Democracy cooperated in constructing a democratic constitutional order. In the Soviet buffer-zone states of eastern Europe, bourgeois civil society was eliminated slice by slice: by a sequence known as ‘salami tactics’. This was partly in reaction to the perceived Western aggression of the ‘Marshall Plan’. Western Cold Warriors – drawing the lesson that Popular Frontism was only a means to the end of totalitarian communisiation – characterised Communist ‘subversion’ as an endemic corruption of leftist movements. This was considered to be a particular problem in the under-developed ‘Third World’. Fearing both subversion and outright war, a gigantic ‘Military-Industrial Complex’ grew up in the United States, placing pressure upon that country's traditions of democratic and free-market civil society.Less
Post-war Western Europe converged towards an American model of high-wage consumerist capitalism, considerably attenuating class conflict. In Western Europe, Christian democracy and Social Democracy cooperated in constructing a democratic constitutional order. In the Soviet buffer-zone states of eastern Europe, bourgeois civil society was eliminated slice by slice: by a sequence known as ‘salami tactics’. This was partly in reaction to the perceived Western aggression of the ‘Marshall Plan’. Western Cold Warriors – drawing the lesson that Popular Frontism was only a means to the end of totalitarian communisiation – characterised Communist ‘subversion’ as an endemic corruption of leftist movements. This was considered to be a particular problem in the under-developed ‘Third World’. Fearing both subversion and outright war, a gigantic ‘Military-Industrial Complex’ grew up in the United States, placing pressure upon that country's traditions of democratic and free-market civil society.
Tom Buchanan and Martin Conway (eds)
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198203193
- eISBN:
- 9780191675775
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198203193.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
In the 20th century, Catholics have been enthusiastic supporters of the dictatorships of Franco and Salazar, victims of Nazism in Germany, and advocates of Christian Democracy in post-war Europe. ...
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In the 20th century, Catholics have been enthusiastic supporters of the dictatorships of Franco and Salazar, victims of Nazism in Germany, and advocates of Christian Democracy in post-war Europe. What unites these experiences? In this book, focusing on the years between the end of the First World War and the Second Vatican Council, a group of historians tackle this issue on a country-by-country basis, investigating how far Catholicism represented not only a religious, but also a major political and social force in European politics. The issues covered include Christian Democracy, the best-known expression of Catholic political activity, as well as various lesser-known forms such as Catholic Action, corporatism, Catholic trade unions, and other lay movements. This book demonstrates that political Catholicism has been unduly neglected by historians of 20th-century Europe.Less
In the 20th century, Catholics have been enthusiastic supporters of the dictatorships of Franco and Salazar, victims of Nazism in Germany, and advocates of Christian Democracy in post-war Europe. What unites these experiences? In this book, focusing on the years between the end of the First World War and the Second Vatican Council, a group of historians tackle this issue on a country-by-country basis, investigating how far Catholicism represented not only a religious, but also a major political and social force in European politics. The issues covered include Christian Democracy, the best-known expression of Catholic political activity, as well as various lesser-known forms such as Catholic Action, corporatism, Catholic trade unions, and other lay movements. This book demonstrates that political Catholicism has been unduly neglected by historians of 20th-century Europe.
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226134833
- eISBN:
- 9780226134857
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226134857.003.0004
- Subject:
- Political Science, American Politics
In a public debate dominated by ideological interest groups that thrive on creating fear about religion, the intellectual genealogy of the faith-based initiative was not well understood. Yet because ...
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In a public debate dominated by ideological interest groups that thrive on creating fear about religion, the intellectual genealogy of the faith-based initiative was not well understood. Yet because of its religious ideas, the faith-based initiative holds the key to a new debate on poverty, one that neither side of the culture war is prepared to have. This chapter examines the Catholic and Dutch Calvinist theories of the limited state that shaped the design and implementation of the faith-based initiative in America. It first looks at the Catholic concept of subsidiarity before turning to the concept of sphere sovereignty developed by the Dutch Calvinist statesman and theologian Abraham Kuyper. The chapter also discusses Christian Democracy as opposed to Christian America, as well as social pluralism whose leading English theorists were John Neville Figgis and Harold Laski. Finally, it looks at Germany, in which confessional critics of the Weimar Republic's social-democratic welfare system helped pave the way for the Nazi seizure of power.Less
In a public debate dominated by ideological interest groups that thrive on creating fear about religion, the intellectual genealogy of the faith-based initiative was not well understood. Yet because of its religious ideas, the faith-based initiative holds the key to a new debate on poverty, one that neither side of the culture war is prepared to have. This chapter examines the Catholic and Dutch Calvinist theories of the limited state that shaped the design and implementation of the faith-based initiative in America. It first looks at the Catholic concept of subsidiarity before turning to the concept of sphere sovereignty developed by the Dutch Calvinist statesman and theologian Abraham Kuyper. The chapter also discusses Christian Democracy as opposed to Christian America, as well as social pluralism whose leading English theorists were John Neville Figgis and Harold Laski. Finally, it looks at Germany, in which confessional critics of the Weimar Republic's social-democratic welfare system helped pave the way for the Nazi seizure of power.
Piotr H. Kosicki
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780300225518
- eISBN:
- 9780300231489
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300225518.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
This chapter tells the story of how the Red Army’s liberation of Poland from German occupation in 1944–1945 circumscribed the postwar choices of Catholic activists. In a nascent Communist Poland, ...
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This chapter tells the story of how the Red Army’s liberation of Poland from German occupation in 1944–1945 circumscribed the postwar choices of Catholic activists. In a nascent Communist Poland, social Catholicism emerged as a hotly contested badge of honor—all while Catholic projects of “revolution” began to converge with their secular, Marxist counterpart. As a result, Thomism was driven to the margins of Communist Poland, and Christian Democracy eliminated outright. One strain of Catholic intellectuals proved both intellectually vibrant and, thanks to Communist support, politically viable. This was the ex-fascist Bolesław Piasecki’s Dziś i Jutro (Today and Tomorrow) movement, which wrapped itself in the banner of social Catholicism as it supplanted the Christian Democrats of Poland’s Christian Labor Party, led by Karol Popiel. All the while, Dziś i Jutro drew on both personalism and “revolution” to chart an alternative Catholic course in public life: Catholic socialism.Less
This chapter tells the story of how the Red Army’s liberation of Poland from German occupation in 1944–1945 circumscribed the postwar choices of Catholic activists. In a nascent Communist Poland, social Catholicism emerged as a hotly contested badge of honor—all while Catholic projects of “revolution” began to converge with their secular, Marxist counterpart. As a result, Thomism was driven to the margins of Communist Poland, and Christian Democracy eliminated outright. One strain of Catholic intellectuals proved both intellectually vibrant and, thanks to Communist support, politically viable. This was the ex-fascist Bolesław Piasecki’s Dziś i Jutro (Today and Tomorrow) movement, which wrapped itself in the banner of social Catholicism as it supplanted the Christian Democrats of Poland’s Christian Labor Party, led by Karol Popiel. All the while, Dziś i Jutro drew on both personalism and “revolution” to chart an alternative Catholic course in public life: Catholic socialism.
Piotr H. Kosicki
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780300225518
- eISBN:
- 9780300231489
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300225518.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
This chapter tells the story of France and Poland’s wartime generation, born in the 1910s and 1920s, which drew inspiration during World War II from the young, upstart icon of Catholic “revolution”: ...
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This chapter tells the story of France and Poland’s wartime generation, born in the 1910s and 1920s, which drew inspiration during World War II from the young, upstart icon of Catholic “revolution”: Emmanuel Mounier. Jacques Maritain’s wartime exile to North America afforded him the freedom to produce copious writings that were then clandestinely dropped not only into France, but Poland as well. Yet his absence from the continent diminished Thomism’s relevance for the emerging anti-Nazi resistance. The resulting partnership between anti-fascism and Catholic “revolution” elevated Mounier in stature (despite his brief collaboration with Vichy France) and assured him canonical status for the generation of Catholic resisters who helped to achieve their respective homelands’ liberation from Nazism. At the same time, a strong alternative—also Catholic, also anti-fascist—emerged to Mounier: Christian Democracy.Less
This chapter tells the story of France and Poland’s wartime generation, born in the 1910s and 1920s, which drew inspiration during World War II from the young, upstart icon of Catholic “revolution”: Emmanuel Mounier. Jacques Maritain’s wartime exile to North America afforded him the freedom to produce copious writings that were then clandestinely dropped not only into France, but Poland as well. Yet his absence from the continent diminished Thomism’s relevance for the emerging anti-Nazi resistance. The resulting partnership between anti-fascism and Catholic “revolution” elevated Mounier in stature (despite his brief collaboration with Vichy France) and assured him canonical status for the generation of Catholic resisters who helped to achieve their respective homelands’ liberation from Nazism. At the same time, a strong alternative—also Catholic, also anti-fascist—emerged to Mounier: Christian Democracy.
Stephen J. C. Andes
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- April 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199688487
- eISBN:
- 9780191767661
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199688487.003.0009
- Subject:
- History, History of Religion, Latin American History
The final chapter describes how Catholic Action’s non-partisan character influenced Catholic university students in Mexico, Chile, and throughout Latin America. It then suggests that young Catholic ...
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The final chapter describes how Catholic Action’s non-partisan character influenced Catholic university students in Mexico, Chile, and throughout Latin America. It then suggests that young Catholic university students used Vatican restrictions on electoral politics in the early stages of Christian Democratic party formation. In essence, both the Vatican and Christian Democrats desired to detach Church-sponsored organizations from partisan politics. The chapter details the experiences of these young university students in Rome at an international Catholic Action conference. It follows the travels of Eduardo Frei and Manuel Garretón who toured Europe and surveyed the political Catholic movements in Europe at the time.Less
The final chapter describes how Catholic Action’s non-partisan character influenced Catholic university students in Mexico, Chile, and throughout Latin America. It then suggests that young Catholic university students used Vatican restrictions on electoral politics in the early stages of Christian Democratic party formation. In essence, both the Vatican and Christian Democrats desired to detach Church-sponsored organizations from partisan politics. The chapter details the experiences of these young university students in Rome at an international Catholic Action conference. It follows the travels of Eduardo Frei and Manuel Garretón who toured Europe and surveyed the political Catholic movements in Europe at the time.
Stephen J. C. Andes
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- April 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199688487
- eISBN:
- 9780191767661
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199688487.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, History of Religion, Latin American History
This book examines Vatican policy towards Catholic social and political movements in Mexico and Chile in the 1920s and 1930s. The first book length treatment of the subject to use Vatican archival ...
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This book examines Vatican policy towards Catholic social and political movements in Mexico and Chile in the 1920s and 1930s. The first book length treatment of the subject to use Vatican archival sources, it argues that conflict within the Church between Vatican officials, bishops, and lay Catholics influenced Catholic social and political participation in the public sphere in Mexico and Chile. Both countries experienced similar conflicts between Church and state during the 1920s and 1930s; in Mexico, this led to the violent Cristero Rebellion (1926–1929). In Chile, Church and state were separated in 1925 after the promulgation of a new Constitution. Lay activists increasingly entered the realm of party politics to block secularization, while the Vatican sought to limit confessional politics so as not to inflame Church–state conflicts. To do so, Rome developed an organization known as Catholic Action, which officially mandated a separation between Catholic political and religious activism within the movement. The book contends that the Vatican’s discourse on politics influenced a generation of young socially engaged activists in their own desire to build a wall of separation between the hierarchy and nascent Christian Democratic parties in the region. This book tells the story of transnational Catholic political activism, which developed symbiotically across continents, intimately connected by a desire to battle secularization and provide a Catholic response to the social tumult associated with contemporary society. This work emphasizes the importance of Rome in the construction of Catholic political activism globally before the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965).Less
This book examines Vatican policy towards Catholic social and political movements in Mexico and Chile in the 1920s and 1930s. The first book length treatment of the subject to use Vatican archival sources, it argues that conflict within the Church between Vatican officials, bishops, and lay Catholics influenced Catholic social and political participation in the public sphere in Mexico and Chile. Both countries experienced similar conflicts between Church and state during the 1920s and 1930s; in Mexico, this led to the violent Cristero Rebellion (1926–1929). In Chile, Church and state were separated in 1925 after the promulgation of a new Constitution. Lay activists increasingly entered the realm of party politics to block secularization, while the Vatican sought to limit confessional politics so as not to inflame Church–state conflicts. To do so, Rome developed an organization known as Catholic Action, which officially mandated a separation between Catholic political and religious activism within the movement. The book contends that the Vatican’s discourse on politics influenced a generation of young socially engaged activists in their own desire to build a wall of separation between the hierarchy and nascent Christian Democratic parties in the region. This book tells the story of transnational Catholic political activism, which developed symbiotically across continents, intimately connected by a desire to battle secularization and provide a Catholic response to the social tumult associated with contemporary society. This work emphasizes the importance of Rome in the construction of Catholic political activism globally before the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965).
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226134833
- eISBN:
- 9780226134857
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226134857.003.0005
- Subject:
- Political Science, American Politics
This chapter tries to “reframe” the debate on faith-based social policy in America, arguing that the confessional/philosophical genealogy of the faith-based initiative is becoming more relevant in ...
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This chapter tries to “reframe” the debate on faith-based social policy in America, arguing that the confessional/philosophical genealogy of the faith-based initiative is becoming more relevant in the emerging debate on economic insecurity. It considers these confessional welfare models as an expression of pluralist thought, or what it calls social pluralism. Pluralist political theory, associated in different ways with thinkers such as Felicité de Lamennais, Otto von Gierke, Harold Laski, and J. N. Figgis, roughly coincided with the emergence of confessional challenges to welfare and liberal education, as well as with the earliest stages of the politics of Christian Democracy. This “social pluralism” built in part on the older legal traditions of “church autonomy” and “freedom of the church,” but should not be confused with the rationalistic “interest-group” pluralism that characterizes American political theory. Rather, social pluralism is essentially an idea of political order that depends on older ideas of the intrinsic sovereignty of natural social structures and morally integrated groups.Less
This chapter tries to “reframe” the debate on faith-based social policy in America, arguing that the confessional/philosophical genealogy of the faith-based initiative is becoming more relevant in the emerging debate on economic insecurity. It considers these confessional welfare models as an expression of pluralist thought, or what it calls social pluralism. Pluralist political theory, associated in different ways with thinkers such as Felicité de Lamennais, Otto von Gierke, Harold Laski, and J. N. Figgis, roughly coincided with the emergence of confessional challenges to welfare and liberal education, as well as with the earliest stages of the politics of Christian Democracy. This “social pluralism” built in part on the older legal traditions of “church autonomy” and “freedom of the church,” but should not be confused with the rationalistic “interest-group” pluralism that characterizes American political theory. Rather, social pluralism is essentially an idea of political order that depends on older ideas of the intrinsic sovereignty of natural social structures and morally integrated groups.
Stephen J. C. Andes
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- April 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199688487
- eISBN:
- 9780191767661
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199688487.003.0010
- Subject:
- History, History of Religion, Latin American History
As the Vatican founded an official model of Catholic Action globally during the decade, papal officials seemed to understand that Catholic cultural norms would not change overnight. The inculcation ...
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As the Vatican founded an official model of Catholic Action globally during the decade, papal officials seemed to understand that Catholic cultural norms would not change overnight. The inculcation of Catholic Action’s normative practice on political participation appears similar to the process of ‘habitus’ described by Pierre Bourdieu, who argues that rules for behaviour are learned through a diverse network of social relations. Aspe Armella has applied this framework for understanding Catholic Action in Mexico, but the analysis is helpful for the Chilean case as well. Thus, Catholic Action’s discourse on politics was an important, and unstudied, influence on the development of both Chilean Christian Democracy and Mexico’s Partido Acción Nacional. However, the Mexican post-revolutionary state’s restrictions on Catholic party politics was also a crucial factor in the trajectory of the PAN.Less
As the Vatican founded an official model of Catholic Action globally during the decade, papal officials seemed to understand that Catholic cultural norms would not change overnight. The inculcation of Catholic Action’s normative practice on political participation appears similar to the process of ‘habitus’ described by Pierre Bourdieu, who argues that rules for behaviour are learned through a diverse network of social relations. Aspe Armella has applied this framework for understanding Catholic Action in Mexico, but the analysis is helpful for the Chilean case as well. Thus, Catholic Action’s discourse on politics was an important, and unstudied, influence on the development of both Chilean Christian Democracy and Mexico’s Partido Acción Nacional. However, the Mexican post-revolutionary state’s restrictions on Catholic party politics was also a crucial factor in the trajectory of the PAN.
Peter Steinfels
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- March 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780823225255
- eISBN:
- 9780823236589
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fso/9780823225255.003.0010
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
This chapter examines liberal Catholicism and its role on the life of Peter Steinfels. It argues that liberal Catholicism is, in fact, a controverted and approximate label. Its history overlaps with ...
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This chapter examines liberal Catholicism and its role on the life of Peter Steinfels. It argues that liberal Catholicism is, in fact, a controverted and approximate label. Its history overlaps with that of Christian Democracy, social Catholicism, and modernism. The chapter notes that liberal Catholicism was rooted in Romanticism more than in the Enlightenment. Its rebellion against the old alliance of throne and altar, and its eventual embrace of freedom of religion for all, was restorationist, not revolutionary. The chapter points out five observations of liberal Catholicism. The chapter concludes by discussing the themes of heroism, joy, and obedience.Less
This chapter examines liberal Catholicism and its role on the life of Peter Steinfels. It argues that liberal Catholicism is, in fact, a controverted and approximate label. Its history overlaps with that of Christian Democracy, social Catholicism, and modernism. The chapter notes that liberal Catholicism was rooted in Romanticism more than in the Enlightenment. Its rebellion against the old alliance of throne and altar, and its eventual embrace of freedom of religion for all, was restorationist, not revolutionary. The chapter points out five observations of liberal Catholicism. The chapter concludes by discussing the themes of heroism, joy, and obedience.
Rosario Forlenza
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- November 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780198817444
- eISBN:
- 9780191859045
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198817444.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History, Political History
This chapter deals with the growing influence of both Soviet and domestic Communism on the evolution of democracy and the political transformation of Italy. It inserts the political and existential ...
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This chapter deals with the growing influence of both Soviet and domestic Communism on the evolution of democracy and the political transformation of Italy. It inserts the political and existential choices of the fledgling democratic society into the overarching context of the time, which was the incipient Cold War. Italy was a microcosm of this global context, because the most important political forces, the Catholics and the Communists, operated with the myth of freedom/America and the myth of the Soviet Union respectively. Yet the struggle was not exclusively pervaded and marked by contrast, fear, and opposition. Party political opponents had fought together in the anti-fascist Resistance and had collaborated in the organization of the democratic institutional arrangement and in the writing of the republican Constitution. The apparently ideological struggle between Catholics and communists was in reality a search for order and meaning between two contested sovereignties.Less
This chapter deals with the growing influence of both Soviet and domestic Communism on the evolution of democracy and the political transformation of Italy. It inserts the political and existential choices of the fledgling democratic society into the overarching context of the time, which was the incipient Cold War. Italy was a microcosm of this global context, because the most important political forces, the Catholics and the Communists, operated with the myth of freedom/America and the myth of the Soviet Union respectively. Yet the struggle was not exclusively pervaded and marked by contrast, fear, and opposition. Party political opponents had fought together in the anti-fascist Resistance and had collaborated in the organization of the democratic institutional arrangement and in the writing of the republican Constitution. The apparently ideological struggle between Catholics and communists was in reality a search for order and meaning between two contested sovereignties.
Stephen J. C. Andes
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- April 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199688487
- eISBN:
- 9780191767661
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199688487.003.0008
- Subject:
- History, History of Religion, Latin American History
In Chile, a younger generation of Catholic activists readily accepted papal policy as justification for their own desire to disconnect Catholic political action from clerical control. The reason was ...
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In Chile, a younger generation of Catholic activists readily accepted papal policy as justification for their own desire to disconnect Catholic political action from clerical control. The reason was practical in nature: these ‘Christian Democrats’, as they referred to themselves, could draw from a larger political base and would no longer be directed by the Church hierarchy, who were often more socially conservative. The most salient example of this occurred in Chile, where Catholic Action groups who were fed-up with the episcopate’s attempts to bind them to the Partido Conservador eventually formed the Falange Nacional (1938) outside the Church. The Falange Nacional was the first incarnation of the Partido Demócrata Cristiano de Chile (1957). In essence, the Vatican and Christian Democrats both desired to detach Church-controlled organizations from party politics.Less
In Chile, a younger generation of Catholic activists readily accepted papal policy as justification for their own desire to disconnect Catholic political action from clerical control. The reason was practical in nature: these ‘Christian Democrats’, as they referred to themselves, could draw from a larger political base and would no longer be directed by the Church hierarchy, who were often more socially conservative. The most salient example of this occurred in Chile, where Catholic Action groups who were fed-up with the episcopate’s attempts to bind them to the Partido Conservador eventually formed the Falange Nacional (1938) outside the Church. The Falange Nacional was the first incarnation of the Partido Demócrata Cristiano de Chile (1957). In essence, the Vatican and Christian Democrats both desired to detach Church-controlled organizations from party politics.
Rosario Forlenza
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- November 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780198817444
- eISBN:
- 9780191859045
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198817444.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History, Political History
This chapter analyzes the importance of “America” (effectively synonymous with “the West”) as an idealized goal of the political, social, and individual imagination, and examines how the American ...
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This chapter analyzes the importance of “America” (effectively synonymous with “the West”) as an idealized goal of the political, social, and individual imagination, and examines how the American model of democracy shaped the democratic aspirations of millions of Italians. The arrival of the American armies exerted a great fascination on Italians. However, the myth of America as land of freedom and plenty had been already introduced within the fabric of the Italian society by the power of cinema and literature, and, most importantly, by the culture of letters produced by millions of Italian emigrants. The attraction of America was not only an existential alternative to the backward and poor Italy, further demoralized by the failure of Fascism, but also an effective carrier of the decisive electoral triumph of Christian Democracy over the leftist Popular Front in the parliamentary elections of 1948.Less
This chapter analyzes the importance of “America” (effectively synonymous with “the West”) as an idealized goal of the political, social, and individual imagination, and examines how the American model of democracy shaped the democratic aspirations of millions of Italians. The arrival of the American armies exerted a great fascination on Italians. However, the myth of America as land of freedom and plenty had been already introduced within the fabric of the Italian society by the power of cinema and literature, and, most importantly, by the culture of letters produced by millions of Italian emigrants. The attraction of America was not only an existential alternative to the backward and poor Italy, further demoralized by the failure of Fascism, but also an effective carrier of the decisive electoral triumph of Christian Democracy over the leftist Popular Front in the parliamentary elections of 1948.
Jonathan White
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- January 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780198791720
- eISBN:
- 9780191834011
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198791720.003.0003
- Subject:
- Political Science, European Union
Since its origins in the 1950s, European integration has entailed the creation of institutions whose rationale is to advance and maintain certain policy ends, notably the ‘four freedoms’ of the ...
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Since its origins in the 1950s, European integration has entailed the creation of institutions whose rationale is to advance and maintain certain policy ends, notably the ‘four freedoms’ of the common market. As this chapter argues, the effect is that policy commitments have tended to be privileged over procedural arrangements. Rather than self-standing entities that can be put to different ends, broadly on the model of the modern state, one sees institutions evolving with the policies, and liable to be side-stepped should they fail to serve those ends. A non-hierarchical constitutional structure does little to inhibit these restructurings, indeed arguably gives further encouragement. The ideas and practices of emergency become ways to galvanize action, coordination, and innovation across a diverse and potentially recalcitrant institutional field.Less
Since its origins in the 1950s, European integration has entailed the creation of institutions whose rationale is to advance and maintain certain policy ends, notably the ‘four freedoms’ of the common market. As this chapter argues, the effect is that policy commitments have tended to be privileged over procedural arrangements. Rather than self-standing entities that can be put to different ends, broadly on the model of the modern state, one sees institutions evolving with the policies, and liable to be side-stepped should they fail to serve those ends. A non-hierarchical constitutional structure does little to inhibit these restructurings, indeed arguably gives further encouragement. The ideas and practices of emergency become ways to galvanize action, coordination, and innovation across a diverse and potentially recalcitrant institutional field.
Michael D. Driessen
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199329700
- eISBN:
- 9780199375288
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199329700.003.0004
- Subject:
- Political Science, Comparative Politics, Democratization
This chapter presents the book’s theoretical model for describing the dialectic dynamics created by a religiously friendly democratization process in a country whose religious market is dominated by ...
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This chapter presents the book’s theoretical model for describing the dialectic dynamics created by a religiously friendly democratization process in a country whose religious market is dominated by ambivalently democratic religious actors. It first considers how religiously friendly democratization affects the political goals and discourse of religious political movements, drawing on and advancing scholarship on the inclusion-moderation hypothesis, post-Islamism, Christian Democracy and party politics. It then considers how religiously friendly democratization affects the religious life of the nation, drawing on and advancing recent scholarship on secularization, public religion and comparative religious economies.Less
This chapter presents the book’s theoretical model for describing the dialectic dynamics created by a religiously friendly democratization process in a country whose religious market is dominated by ambivalently democratic religious actors. It first considers how religiously friendly democratization affects the political goals and discourse of religious political movements, drawing on and advancing scholarship on the inclusion-moderation hypothesis, post-Islamism, Christian Democracy and party politics. It then considers how religiously friendly democratization affects the religious life of the nation, drawing on and advancing recent scholarship on secularization, public religion and comparative religious economies.
Elena Danescu
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780198735915
- eISBN:
- 9780191799860
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198735915.003.0005
- Subject:
- Political Science, European Union, Political Economy
As prime minister and finance minister of Luxembourg over 30 years, Pierre Werner played a major role in the building of a united Europe. He gained a strong reputation as a trustworthy ...
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As prime minister and finance minister of Luxembourg over 30 years, Pierre Werner played a major role in the building of a united Europe. He gained a strong reputation as a trustworthy consensus-builder between larger powers (Germany and France) and between diametrically opposed positions (‘economists’ and ‘monetarists’), as well as for his ideas on monetary integration. From the early 1950s, Werner advocated a European monetary system based on a currency unit and on a clearing house for central banks. In 1968 he delivered a clear roadmap to EMU, founded on a symmetrical economic and monetary union, with political union as the ultimate goal. Werner’s vital contributions, notably the ‘effective parallelism’ principle, were evident in the Werner Report of 1970, which was offered as the blueprint for EMU in the EU. Based on original sources, this chapter highlights Werner’s contribution as architect of EMU in a threefold way: intellectual contribution, negotiation methods, and consensus building.Less
As prime minister and finance minister of Luxembourg over 30 years, Pierre Werner played a major role in the building of a united Europe. He gained a strong reputation as a trustworthy consensus-builder between larger powers (Germany and France) and between diametrically opposed positions (‘economists’ and ‘monetarists’), as well as for his ideas on monetary integration. From the early 1950s, Werner advocated a European monetary system based on a currency unit and on a clearing house for central banks. In 1968 he delivered a clear roadmap to EMU, founded on a symmetrical economic and monetary union, with political union as the ultimate goal. Werner’s vital contributions, notably the ‘effective parallelism’ principle, were evident in the Werner Report of 1970, which was offered as the blueprint for EMU in the EU. Based on original sources, this chapter highlights Werner’s contribution as architect of EMU in a threefold way: intellectual contribution, negotiation methods, and consensus building.
