The Philosophy of Economic Personalism and KDU-ČSL Policies  Cover Image

Ekonomický personalismus a politika KDU-ČSL
The Philosophy of Economic Personalism and KDU-ČSL Policies

Author(s): Ondřej Stulík
Subject(s): Politics / Political Sciences
Published by: Masarykova univerzita nakladatelství
Keywords: Personalism; ideology; KDU-ČSL; metaphor; economy

Summary/Abstract: This article deals with the phenomenon of economics in the doctrine of personalism and its consequences in the sphere of politics. Within this analysis, some economic distinctions between personalism, on the one hand, and libertarianism and neomarxism, on the other, are identified through a focus on the hermeneutics of personalism and its logical ideological results. These results have the form of testable propositions such as a pregnant definition of dignity, support for the concept of workfare, the family as the “core”, and the belief in the social market, which leads to progressive taxation and interventions in the labor market. These propositions are contained in KDU-ČSL policies, explicitly declared in the manifestos “Volební program 2010–2014”, “Volební program 2013–2017”, and other documents, as well as speeches of KDU-ČSL representatives, mainly of the chairman Pavel Bělobrádek. The connection between personalism and KDU-ČSL policies is then tested by metaphor analysis and the outcomes provide answers to two questions – first, whether the theory of personalism is present in KDU-ČSL policies; second, whether the KDU-ČSL could be subsumed under the socio-economic cleavage in the Czech context, and if so, then to which particular space.

  • Issue Year: XV/2013
  • Issue No: 2-3
  • Page Range: 196-217
  • Page Count: 22
  • Language: Czech