Christian Democracy, Social Democracy

John writes:

When I read news stories such as this one on the think tank CentreForum’s “five a day” checklist for improving parenting, I sometimes want to revert back to my former libertarianism. The welfare state sometimes has a certain busybody element to it that becomes more prominent when benefits become increasingly means tested or when they are attached to certain patronizing requirements like attending parenting classes or only purchasing certain types of food with government food subsidies.

A better course of action would be for the State to enact policies that improve the environment for raising families and leaving the rest for actual families to sort out organically. For example, supporting full employment and high wages, especially for male workers, can help strengthen families by providing the necessary economic base for paternal authority within families while at the same time obviating the need for mothers to find employment outside of the home or to put children in daycare centers. Additionally, making divorce more difficult would strike at the heart of the culture of caprice that is reflected in many of the social problems present in today’s society.

And:

It has been a while since I have written a substantive post. However, I have been doing some research of sorts and have stumbled upon a veritable treasure trove in the form of a website devoted to the study of the life and thought of the late Aldo Moro, the former Prime Minister of Italy. Tragically, Moro is mostly known for being the victim of a brutal assassination by the Red Brigades, a Marxist-Leninist terrorist organization. Moro was murdered by left-wing extremists because of his work to save Italian democracy by integrating the whole nation into a revitalized democratic system. Moro’s Historic Compromise with the Italian Communist Party angered Washington and Moscow, as well as the intransigent sections of the Italian Right and the Left.

As I see it, Moro’s death was a severe blow to Italy. A tremendous mediator within his own faction-ridden Christian Democratic Party, Moro may have been the only Italian politician with the ability to hold together a country that, in many respects, was only superficially united. Additionally, far from simply being a milquetoast master of compromise, Moro was also a progressive in the best sense of the word. Like other left-leaning Christian Democrats, Moro looked to the British Labour Party, and especially the government of Clement Attlee, as a source of inspiration. Moro’s vision of democracy was social democracy, not the pale imitation of democracy that has developed under plutocratic neoliberalism.

Because of the dramatic and controversial circumstances of Moro’s murder (including a wide array of conspiracy theories that rival those surrounding the John F. Kennedy assassination), I gather that most people are more familiar with his death than with his life. This is an unsurprising yet unfortunate state of affairs, as Moro was an important thinker in addition to being a politician. I hope to be able to present my own thematic posts focusing on interpretations of different aspects of Moro’s thought and its significance for our own time.

In the meantime, I highly recommend the website of the Academy of Historical Studies – Aldo Moro, along with its blog, as a resource for those interested in Aldo Moro and his life and work.