Journal article

Publication year: 2010

Journal: Annual meeting of the American Political Science Association

Volume number: 2010

URL: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1643968

Publisher: American Political Science Association

Abstract: 

What determined the emergence of Christian Democratic parties as catch-all parties after 1945: historical legacy or recommencement? The article examines mechanisms of party change in the homelands of Christian Democracy: Italy and Germany. It applies concepts of causality from rationalist and historical institutionalism to analyze the periodization of five constitutive elements in the transformation of the Democrazia Cristi-ana (DC) and Christlich-Demokratische Union (CDU) to catch-all parties. Revising previous explanations, the analysis reveals that this process was determined by a combination of path-dependence as causal mechanism and the rational choices of party operatives reacting to historical challenges after 1945.

Harvard Citation style: Hornig, E. (2010) Rational Choice or Path-Dependence? : Mechanisms of Party Change in German and Italian Christian Democracy, Annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, 2010. https://ssrn.com/abstract=1643968

APA Citation style: Hornig, E. (2010). Rational Choice or Path-Dependence? : Mechanisms of Party Change in German and Italian Christian Democracy. Annual meeting of the American Political Science Association. 2010. https://ssrn.com/abstract=1643968