For the leftists: Who advocates Christian democracy?

[ribozyme]

I count myself as a social liberal (defined here and here). However, some people on these forums, I regard as “leftists.” Of course, “social liberalism” is one political ideology on the left of the political spectrum which also includes socialism, social democracy, and communism . (AND “social liberalism” IS NOT COMMUNISM or SOCIALISM.)

Political views are supposed to have some consistency to them. Social liberalism, for example, has its principles grounded in utilitarianism, an emphasis on civil liberals, and the secularism of the Enlightenment. (Bentham and Mill largely augmented classical liberalism with their utilitarian concern for human welfare (in the case of Bentham, this also extended to other animals.)) Such views are not merely grab-bags of preferences - social liberalism is generally not a “cafeteria” political ideology.

I do not expect leftists here to be “liberals” as I do believe that some of its tenets are incompatible with Catholic (or Christian) worldview. But does anyone here follow the paradigm of “Christian democracy?”

Geoffrey K. Roberts and Patricia Hogwood describe the basis of Christian Democracy by writing “In terms of ideology, Christian Democracy has incorporated many of the views held by liberals, conservatives and socialists within a wider framework of moral and Christian principles.”[1] They describe the basis of Christian Democracy in terms of comparisons to and contrasts with liberalism, socialism and conservatism, a useful approach to understanding Christian Democracy.

In such terms of comparisons and contrasts, a “typical” Christian Democratic viewpoint might be described as follows:

In common with liberalism, an emphasis on human rights and individual initiative.

In contrast to liberalism, a rejection of laicity, and an emphasis on the fact that the individual is part of a community and has duties towards it.

In common with conservatism, conservative moral values (that is, on issues such as marriage, divorce, abortion etc.), a view of the evolutionary development of society, an emphasis on law and order, and a rejection of communism.

In contrast to conservatism, open to change (for example, in the structure of society) and not necessarily supportive of the social status quo.

In common with socialism, a strong emphasis on social solidarity (that is, the welfare state, prioritizing alleviation of poverty, higher taxes on the wealthy, etc.) and a willingness to restrain market forces.

In contrast to socialism, supports capitalism (with restrictions) and a market economy and does not adhere to the class struggle doctrine.

 

[JonW]

Thanks for the great post. I’d say that I fall into this category as delineated in some ways. I’m not so sure about the last three comparisons. I would also council against the idea that a coherent or complete picture can be drawn simply by comparing to and picking from other political ideologies. I think such an analysis would entirely miss the point of any such idea. A “Christian Democracy” worldview would be first and foremost Christ-centered. By comparing the idea to a laundry list of cherry-picked political notions would be pretty meaningless, I think.

God Bless

Jon Winterburn