Rational Choice or Path-Dependence? Mechanisms of Party Change in German and Italian Christian Democracy
Year: 2010
Type: preprint
Abstract: What determined the emergence of Christian Democratic parties as catch-all parties after 1945: historical legacy or recommencement? The article examines mechanisms of party change in the homelands of Christian Democracy: Italy and Germany. It applies concepts of causality from rationalist and historical institutionalism to analyze the periodization of five constitutive elements in the transformation of the Democrazia Cristi-ana (DC) and Christlich-Demokratische Union (CDU) to catch-all parties. Revising previous explanations, the analysis reveals that this process was determined by a combination of path-dependence as causal mechanism and the rational choices of party operatives reacting to historical challenges after 1945.
Source: SSRN Electronic Journal
Author: Eike‐Christian Hornig
Language: English
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2256058705