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Konrad Adenauer was Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany during the crucially important postwar years 1949-63, often referred to as the 'Adenauer Era'. Adenauer was certainly a very influential figure in postwar German politics. In 1949 he became Chancellor of a still-occupied country, which lay in ruins after the collapse of Hitler's dictatorship. When his Chancellorship ended fourteen years later, the Federal Republic was a prosperous, powerful, sovereign, liberal democracy, firmly committed to the Western Alliance. As Ronald Irving shows, Adenauer contributed significantly to this huge metamorphosis. This is more than a personal biography: it is an assessment of the life and time...
Christian Democracy, which may briefly be defined as organised political action by Catholic democrats, has been a major political force in Western Europe since the Second World War, not least in France. The aim of this book, first published in 1973, is to trace the Development of Christian Democracy in France from its origins in the 1830s to the present day, discussing its theories and its importance in French history and politics, with particular (but by no means exclusive) reference to the Fourth Republic (1946-58) when the MRP was one of the key centre parties. Dr Irving provides a thorough analysis of MRP, its economic, foreign and colonial policies, and gives reasons for the relative decline of French Christian Democracy in the 1960s. This French movement has been little understood in Britain and a throrough history has been badly needed. This study will be valuable to all those who, in the context of a United Europe, wish to understand the political forces at work at its conception. It will be valuable especially to students of modern history and politics.
No account of contemporary politics can ignore religion. The liberal democratic tradition in political thought has long treated religion with some suspicion, regarding it as a source of division and instability. Faith in Politics shows how such arguments are unpersuasive and dependent on questionable empirical claims: rather than being a serious threat to democracies' legitimacy, stability and freedom, religion can be democratically constructive. Using historical cases of important religious political movements to add empirical weight, Bryan McGraw suggests that religion will remain a significant political force for the foreseeable future and that pluralist democracies would do well to welcome rather than marginalize it.