Gerard F. Rutan

Catholic and Evangelical élites in dialogue and alliance

Throughout their histories the Evangelical and Catholic communities have been traditional opponents. Seldom have they agreed, and never have they joined to work as one within the US society and polity. However, beginning in the early 1990s some small, self‐identifying elites from each religious community sought out in the other visible persons of similar ideological and moral commitment. Advances the context of that dialogue between these micro‐elites, proposes the application of classical elite theory to explain the dialogue better. Generates a seven‐postulate hypothesis to answer the question posed by the context and the application of elite theory: can self‐selected micro‐elites maintain their alliance and accommodation for a significant period of time? Given that these are integrative and pattern maintenance elites (not the more usual ruling and adaptive ones) the application of elite theory offers an unconventional understanding of alliance building, as well as an uncommon insight into religious co‐o...

Christian Democracy in Western Europe: an idea whose time has passed?

Christian Democracy as an ideology and as a political movement has been ascendant in Western European states for half a century, forming the governing party or a major part of the governing coalition of parties in many of them over numerous decades up to the present. Yet the study of Christian Democracy, its general ideology and general programmatic elements across Western Europe, has been singularly lacking. Centrist establishment parties and economic programmes seem not to have the same appeal to academic investigators as the more exciting and ideologically demarcated ones. Also the future seems bleak for some Christian Democratic parties in Western Europe. The focuses are on the general ideology of the movement and the shared programmatic commonalities among the parties. Advances a consideration of the future for CD parties in the short term and the problems confronting Christian Democracy in the future. Also assesses the role and prospects for Christian Democracy in the European Union, particularly as they relate to the European People’s Party (EPP) in the European Parliament.