Conservatism, Christian Democracy and the Dynamics of Transformation: Traditions, Cooperation and Influence in North-West Europe, 1945-91

Conservatism, Christian Democracy, and the Dynamics of Transformation compares the centre-right political traditions of Britain, the Nordic countries, France, West Germany, and Austria and looks for evidence of political cooperation and influence across borders during the period 1945-90. The book explores howa variety of intellectuals, politicians, and political parties transformed their politics in response to major economic, social, and political challenges and seeks to explain why conservatives and Christian democrats came to feel that they belonged to a wider centre-right political family by the end of this period. It also examines why these political traditions found it difficult to cooperate with each other after the Second World War and why they decided to invest more political capital in inter-party relations and wider transnational projects from the 1960s. As the book shows, these developments resulted in two new centre-right internationals: the European Democrat Union and the International Democrat Union.

Gary Love is Professor of British History and Culture at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)

Christian Egander Skov is a scholar of Danish political history at the Danish think tank Prospekt and a former Postdoctoral Researcher at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)