The Historical Contribution and Its Limitation of Christian Democracy in the Western European States: an Analysis of Personalism and Ordo Liberalism

The Catholic Church had not adapted successfully to the liberal democracy until World War Ⅱ. After the German Unification in 1870, Christian Democracy was initiated by the confessional party which was made by a historical accident. And its thought was developed based on the non-liberal ‘communitarian personalism’ in the inter-war period. After the World War II, the Christian Democratic Party appeared on the idea of ‘Ordo Liberalism’ and the ‘Social Market Economy’. They took the lead of the reconstruction of liberal democracy and the economic miracle of the Western European States. After the end of cold war Christian Democracy fell in danger but successfully recovered. This paper shows the prospects that the Christian Democracy based on the communitarian personality will play a major role in today’s crisis of liberal democracy.