Hrvatska demokratska zajednica i kršćanska demokracija
Croatian Democratic Union and Christian Democracy

Summary/Abstract: The author claims that, due to the specific Croatian political situation, it is difficult to define the relationships between Croatian political parties and their west European models. This is equally true for social-democratic, liberal and Christian-democratic parties. Throughout Croatian history, Christian democracy was weak because there was no independent Croatian state. The struggle for Croatian sovereignty gave rise to the domination of a broad-based Croatian national movement, emboddied in the first half of the 20th century in the Croatian Peasants’ Party and since 1989 in the Croatian Democratic Union. Though today Croatia is independent, the neither-war-nor-peace predicament stands in the way of Croatian parties (including the CDU) coming out with clean-cut platforms. However, since the II General CDU Convention, this party has been trying to mould itself as a broad popular party whose platform includes the fundamentals of Catholic social canon: the protection of individual dignity, solidarity, subsidiarity, cooperation and aspiring towards common good.

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