The key values of Christian democracy include freedom, democracy, respect for labor, liberty, and social justice.
Democracy. Christian democracy has formed its own views on democracy, which focuses not on the individual with unlimited voluntarism, but on the community. It is the community that is the primary habitat of the individual, and it is the aggregate of communities that forms society. The community emerges at the lowest level of social interactions and is the best representative of the interests of individuals. Therefore, taking into account the interests of the community is the main task of democracy. At the same time, Christian democracy supports the pluralism of opinions and takes into account all social groups in society.
Freedom. Christian democrats consistently advocate the right of every person to free personal development and support pluralism and freedom, and see the main task of their policy as providing a person with the necessary space for freedom. However, individual freedom includes rights and responsibilities and finds its limits in the freedom of other citizens and in responsibility for future generations. Freedom in the Christian democratic sense is realized through personal responsibility and sharing responsibility with others. And the Program of Principles of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in Germany states that “The realization of the freedom of each individual is ethically impossible without responsibility for oneself and for society.” Therefore, Christian Democrats oppose the false understanding of individualism at the expense of others.
Respect for labor. From the perspective of the concept of personalism, Christian democrats view human labor as a value, not a commodity. And respect for labor is inextricably linked to respect for private property, which the ideology of Christian democracy protects, but at the same time, endows with a social function. However, the existence of private property should serve not only selfish interests, but also social ones.
Social justice. The idea of social justice occupies an important place in the ideology of Christian democracy and is a necessary condition for achieving the common good. However, in the Christian democratic understanding, social justice does not imply social equalization, but should be based on objective principles and aimed not only at individuals, but also at the harmonious development of society as a whole. For Christian democrats, social justice is not only about giving everyone what they are entitled to, but also about giving communities and society what they are due. The idea of social justice in a Christian democracy is inextricably linked to a social market economy and a welfare state, which is guided by the principles of solidarity and subsidiarity in its system of services and is on the path to realizing the common good.
This list is not exhaustive and unchangeable, because in each country Christian democrats have their own value priorities. For example, the German CDU/CSU declares freedom, solidarity, and justice as its main values.
Morality is also an important value of Christian democrats, and it is given absolute importance. It is on the principles of morality and on the assessment of political actions from the standpoint of Christian morality that state policy should be based. The most important element of society and a value of Christian democracy is also the family, which is the first component of society. Christian democrats view society itself as a “family made up of families.”
In the ideological and political aspect, Christian democracy today finds a balance between many competing ideologies, which it warns against political extremes. Christian democracy tries to avoid the shortcomings of liberalism, which puts the individual with unlimited desires at the center of everything, sacrificing the interests of society, violating morality and ethics. It also avoids the collectivist extremes of socialism, which strives for equality for all but in reality leads to poverty and economic stagnation. With its universal outlook, Christian democracy also rises above nationalism, which often focuses on the interests of only one nation. In the end, according to one of the most influential philosophers, Jürgen Habermas, there is no alternative to Christian ethics for ensuring freedom, solidarity, emancipation, morality, human rights, and democracy. Only building state policy on Christian principles, in the opinion of Christian democrats, is able to fully build a democratic, legal and social state for all members of society.
Author: Valeriy Maydanyuk