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Why There Is (Almost) No Post-Communist Christian Democracy

Compared to their West European cousins, post-communist Christian Democratic parties are notable for their lack of success.

Date & Time

Wednesday
Mar. 23, 2011
12:00pm – 1:00pm ET

Overview

Compared to their West European cousins, post-communist Christian Democratic parties are notable for their lack of success. Even in the most religious of post-communist democracies, no Christian Democratic (CD) party has claimed a plurality of the electorate. Nonetheless, there is a considerable range in electoral support from 1990-2010, from a low of .7% in Estonia to as high as 18.4% in Slovakia. The most successful CD parties have arisen in Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, and Lithuania. The reasons for this success lie not in popular religiosity, state-church conflict, or alliances between CD parties and churches. Instead, where parties can point to an interwar history of nation- and state- building, they receive an initial electoral boost from this historical legacy. Yet even these favorable historical reputations have transitory effects: by the second or third elections, the impact of interwar support had rapidly faded.

This event took place in the 6th floor boardroom.

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Global Europe Program

The Global Europe Program addresses vital issues affecting the European continent, US-European relations, and Europe’s ties with the rest of the world. We investigate European approaches to critical global issues: digital transformation, climate, migration, global governance. We also examine Europe’s relations with Russia and Eurasia, China and the Indo-Pacific, the Middle East and Africa. Our program activities cover a wide range of topics, from the role of NATO, the European Union and the OSCE to European energy security, trade disputes, challenges to democracy, and counter-terrorism. The Global Europe Program’s staff, scholars-in-residence, and Global Fellows participate in seminars, policy study groups, and international conferences to provide analytical recommendations to policy makers and the media.  Read more

Cold War International History Project

The Cold War International History Project supports the full and prompt release of historical materials by governments on all sides of the Cold War. Through an award winning Digital Archive, the Project allows scholars, journalists, students, and the interested public to reassess the Cold War and its many contemporary legacies. It is part of the Wilson Center's History and Public Policy Program.  Read more

History and Public Policy Program

The History and Public Policy Program makes public the primary source record of 20th and 21st century international history from repositories around the world, facilitates scholarship based on those records, and uses these materials to provide context for classroom, public, and policy debates on global affairs.  Read more

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