Christian democracy

Christian democracy is a political ideology based on Christian humanism and Catholic social teachings. While generally socially conservative, Christian democrats inch toward an economic model of social markets or social democracy, especially where the political spectrum is leaning towards the left. Therefore, they can be categorized as center to center-right and are found mainly in Europe and Latin America.

The line between Christian democrats and secularism is relatively thin; while most favor human rights over theocracy, the goal of Christian democracy is a democratic society inspired by Christian teachings, especially in an ethical dimension.

The morality plays
As social conservatives, they don't like same-sex marriage and abortion all that much. While Christian democratic rhetoric revolves around family, community, and Christian values, Christian democrats are generally not fundamentalist yet concerned about a societal breakdown or overuse of what they consider immoral.

Most make a difference between legislation and culture, something American conservatives have problems with. Comparisons can be made with paleolibertarianism, as they believe that just because something is legal, it still doesn't mean you should do it, or if something is illegal, that doesn't mean it's wrong to do it if nobody is harmed. Another big difference with other conservatives is that Christian democrats are not entirely blind towards social change – even though they may not be particularly enamored with it, they may still embrace it (e. g., supporting single families instead of nuclear ones).

Christian democratic parties are also the home of religious minorities because of the heavy overlaps in conservative Christianity with Judaism and Islam.

The economic balancing act
While most Christian democrats don't think highly of a command economy and democratic socialism, they do not demonize it as much as libertarians or American conservatives do. They generally favor universal health care, state-run unemployment insurance, and welfare states, as they see all of this to be ethically correct and a boon to the community.

In some countries, Christian democratic parties also stand for environmental issues. A prominent example is the CDU in Germany, which has adopted many policies from the Greens.

In America
Many conservative Democrats could be labeled Christian democrats, with those reluctant towards gay rights considered DINOs. The Republican Party also has a lot of Christian democrats such as Mike Pence, but they are not called RINO's and are considered "True patriots".

Political position
Usually, Christian democracy is often regarded as a center-right ideology. In fact, many European Christian democratic parties tend to be 'center-right'.

However, Christian democracy has a much wider position, with its weak liberalism, its focus on social conservatism, and its combination with right-wing populism makes it a right-wing to far-right ideology, and when combined with social democracy or socialism, it becomes a center-left ideology. In the former case, it is similar to the Christian right in the U.S., and in the latter case, it is only trying to realize socialism from Christian values, but it is also socially liberal, so it is friendly to same-sex marriage and abortion.

Since Christian democracy is the ideology of mainstream politics in reality, it is hard to conclude that it is a certain tendency mechanically because it has a wide position and various tendencies within Christian democrats. What is common, however, is that they place moderate emphasis on Christian values under a secular liberal democracy.

A representative political party
Exclude from the list political parties that belong to Centrist Democrat International but do not have strong Christian democratic tendencies.