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Ann Grzymala-Busse, "Why
there is (almost) no Christian Democracy in post-communist
Europe?" Party Politics, 19 (March 2013), 319-342.
[Available at http://ppq.sagepub.com/content/vol19/issue2/
]
First paragraph:
The political landscape of post-communist democracies in
Europe reveals a striking absence: in contrast to Western
Europe, there is little support for Christian Democratic
(CD) political parties, as defined by their programmatic
commitments.1 Even in the most religious of post-communist
democracies, no CD party has claimed a plurality of the
electorate. They certainly have not dominated politics the
way that post-war Austrian, Belgian, Dutch, German or
Italian CD parties have. Post-communist CD parties have not
come anywhere near the achievements of their Western
counterparts, 'rightly considered the most successful
western European political movement since 1945' (Kalyvas,
1996: 2).
- Figures and
Tables:
- Table 1. Average support for Christian
Democracy.
- Table 2. Pairwise correlations among vote for
Christian Democratic parties and populations
characteristics
- Table 3. Decreasing impact of inter-war voting on
post-communist CD support.
- Appendix A: Countries and Data
Last Paragraph:
Much of the literature on post-communist party systems has
emphasized the initial fluidity of party politics and the
ill-defined nature of party identities. Yet we can turn the
question around, and ask why parties might not want to adopt
a clear and salient identity, such as a CD label. CD parties
were faced with the choice of preserving strategic
flexibility or of addressing a narrower but potentially more
loyal religious electorate. Christian Democracy often turned
out to be a narrow and restrictive identity that limited
both the target electorate and the party's strategic
flexibility. An earlier history of nation-state building
could free these parties from negative associations of
clericalism and dependence. Yet even favourable historical
reputations that promoted (perhaps misleadingly) the
parties' initial electoral success were not enough to
sustain the parties in the far less favourable
post-communist environment
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