Between Confessionalism and Liberal Conservatism:The Christian Democratic Parties of Belgium and the Netherlands

According to Horner (1981), the Christian Democratic parties of the Low Countries are still confessional parties (Konjessionsparteien) , whereas their sister parties in Germany and Italy are evolving towards liberal conservative catch-all parties (Volksparteien). In this chapter Horner's thesis will be used to structure our survey of the historical origips and development, organisation, electorate, ideology and government records of the three parties. In each section, the two Belgian parties and the Dutch party will be treated separately