One of the truths of Christianity is “mercy” and this is the basis for one of the most important principles of solidarity in a Christian democracy. Solidarity, or as it used to be called, “brotherhood,” means mutual assistance and understanding among members of a society or community. For Christian democrats, cooperation and solidarity are prerequisites for achieving the common good and peace.
Solidarity is defined by Christian democrats as the main means of combating injustice and inequality and can be expressed in the short “Musketeer” motto “One for all and all for one.” Thanks to the introduction of the principle of social solidarity in the twentieth century, social guarantees for the general population in Europe have significantly improved: pension insurance, health insurance, unemployment insurance, and social assistance systems have been introduced.
Solidarity as a political principle is inherent in many other competing ideologies, including social democrats and communists. However, in the communist version, solidarity is understood as the unity of the working class and the ruling party in the class struggle with other social groups. The Christian democratic interpretation of solidarity, on the other hand, is much more humanistic and embraces all social groups in society, both rich and poor, and in a globalized world, other peoples and nations.
Christian democracy, unlike social democracy and communism, does not emphasize class differences in society, believing that a worldview in class categories only hinders rather than promotes social integration. In addition, Christian democrats differ from conservatives, who are more inclined to value and economic individualism, by the presence of the principle of solidarity. The ideology of Christian democracy, while sharing common views with conservatives on church, family, private property, anti-communism, and limiting the role of the state, is convinced that only the establishment of solidarity that covers all social strata, including the solidarity of the rich with the poor, will make it possible to fully develop society and improve social conditions without excessive idealization of capitalism.
Even Pope Leo XIII’s Encyclical Rerum Novarum, which played a key role in shaping Christian democratic doctrine, pays key attention to the problem of combating social inequality: “…It is necessary to come to the aid of people from the poorest strata immediately, since a significant part of them are in conditions unworthy of a human being. Both institutions and legislation began to move away from the Christian spirit, and it happened that the labor force was gradually left alone, defenseless, face to face with the inhumanity of the masters and the greed of the owners. Greed, covetousness, and usury, so many times condemned by the Church, continued to exist under a different guise. Let us add to this the monopoly of production and trade, which has reached such a degree that a handful of rich people have imposed a yoke on the many proletarians that is no different from a slave’s.” That is why most Christian democratic parties in Europe have strong trade union wings, and the European People’s Party, an association of Christian democratic parties in the European Union, actively supports EU social programs.
Author: Valeriy Maydanyuk