Hans Kelsen on political Catholicism and Christian Democracy

Hans Kelsen was one of the most important legal thinkers of the 20th century, and he is known for mounting an elaborate defense of liberal party democracy at a time when the latter was hardly the most popular form of regime. This article examines how Kelsen responded to two major political movements...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inEuropean journal of political theory Vol. 23; no. 4; pp. 457 - 476
Main Author Wolkenstein, Fabio
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published London, England SAGE Publications 01.10.2024
Sage Publications Ltd
Subjects
20th century
Catholicism
Christian democracy
Hegemony
Kelsen, Hans
Political movements
Political philosophy
Religious movements
World War II
liberal democracy
relativism
Christian Democracy
realism
Hans Kelsen
political Catholicism
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Summary:Hans Kelsen was one of the most important legal thinkers of the 20th century, and he is known for mounting an elaborate defense of liberal party democracy at a time when the latter was hardly the most popular form of regime. This article examines how Kelsen responded to two major political movements he experienced in his intellectual prime: political Catholicism, which he was confronted with in interwar Austria, and Christian Democracy, which became a hegemonic political force in Western Europe after World War II, when Kelsen was already in exile. The article reconstructs Kelsen's complex critique of these two religious movements and ends by reflecting on what we can learn from his arguments about current attempts to revive Christian political thought.
ISSN:1474-8851
1741-2730
DOI:10.1177/14748851231184999