Abstract
Christian democracy is still posing theoretical problems of definition and empirical puzzles of classification and interpretation. Analyses based on secularization theory produce puzzles and anomalies and have little to offer as explanations for the variation in Christian democratic power mobilization. Empirically, this article focuses on Christian democracy in The Netherlands and offers an explanation of the party's decline in the 1990s and its remarkable recovery. From this, lessons are drawn for further theory-building on party and party system change, and on Christian democracy. It seems that modern Christian democratic politics is evolving as neither religious nor secular, but as a version of unsecular politics. Copyright © 2008 SAGE Publications.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 259-280 |
| Number of pages | 22 |
| Journal | Party Politics |
| Volume | 14 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2008 |
