What Is Christian Democracy? Politics, Religion And Ideology

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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.

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What Is Christian Democracy? 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. is Associate Professor of Political Science at the City University of New York – City College and Associate Researcher at the Center for European Studies of the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris (Sciences Po). He is the author of Relativism and Religion, Why Democratic Societies Do Not Need Moral Absolutes (2015) and Techno-populism: The New Logic of Democratic Politics (co-authored with Christopher Bickerton, forthcoming). What Is Christian Democracy? Politics, Religion and Ideology CARLO INVERNIZZI ACCETTI City University of New York – City College University Printing House, Cambridge 2 8 , United Kingdom One Liberty Plaza, 20th Floor, New York, 10006, USA 477 Williamstown Road, Port Melbourne, 3207, Australia 314–321, 3rd Floor, Plot 3, Splendor Forum, Jasola District Centre, New Delhi – 110025, India 79 Anson Road, #06–04/06, Singapore 079906 Cambridge University Press is part of the University of Cambridge. It furthers the University’s mission by disseminating knowledge in the pursuit of education, learning, and research at the highest international levels of excellence. www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9781108421669 : 10.1017/9781108368162 © Carlo Invernizzi Accetti 2019 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 2019 Printed and bound in Great Britain by Clays Ltd, Elcograf S.p.A. A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data : Accetti, Carlo Invernizzi, 1983– author. : What is Christian democracy? : politics, religion and ideology / Carlo Invernizzi Accetti.