Christian democracy applies Christian social teaching to politics, combining democratic government and a social market economy with traditional family and community values.
Key thinkers:Montesquieu, Henry George, Isaiah BerlinTake the test and your match with Christian Democracy shows up here. It is worked out in your browser and never sent anywhere.
Christian democratic parties have been major forces in Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and elsewhere in Europe. They support a market economy with a social safety net, European integration and a role for family, churches and civil society.
They differ from secular conservatives in their emphasis on social solidarity and on subsidiarity: the idea that decisions should be made at the lowest practical level.
The ideas that most people in this tradition would sign up to.
It emerged in 19th-century Europe in response to Catholic social teaching, such as the encyclical Rerum Novarum (1891), and became politically dominant in several countries after 1945.
Thinkers whose documented positions on the 12 axes align most closely with this ideology.
French political theorist · 1689–1755
A French jurist whose Spirit of the Laws compared forms of government and argued that liberty is safest where power is divided among separate institutions.
“Liberty is the right to do what the laws permit, free from arbitrary state fear.”
American political economist · 1839–1897
An American writer whose Progress and Poverty held that the rent of land belongs to the community, and who proposed a single tax on land values in place of other taxes.
“Radical civic democracy and equal economic rights for all working people.”
Oxford political theorist · 1909–1997
A Riga-born Oxford scholar who distinguished negative from positive liberty and argued that human values are plural and can conflict without any master ranking.
“Sceptical of ideological crusades, but a committed Cold War anti-communist who accepted deterrence.”
These are its strongest leanings, followed by all twelve axes. They describe the typical version of the tradition.
Leans very strongly toward Democratic
90% toward Democratic
Leans strongly toward Religious
72% toward Religious
Leans strongly toward Globalism
70% toward Globalism
Editorial estimates for comparison and discussion. Real people and parties in this tradition vary.
Countries whose estimated profile is most like this ideology. No country follows a single ideology, so read this as a comparison, not a label.
Every tradition has critics. These are the objections most often raised.
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The test scores you on all twelve axes and ranks every ideology by how well it matches you.
