Prologue : Des étudiants catholiques au Parti démocrate-chrétien

Abstract

Stemming in the 1930s from the National Phalange party, the Chilean Christian Democratic movement became in 1957 a Mass party, the Christian Democratic Party (PDC). The PDC occupied a central place on the Chilean political scene at the turning point of the 1950s-1960s, then at the beginning of the 1990s. The electoral victory of Eduardo Frei Montalva led in 1964 the PDC to be the first Latin American Christian Democracy to run the Presidency. In 1990, a Christian Democratic (DC) President, Patricio Aylwin, led the first civil and democratic government after the military dictatorship. This thesis proposes a History of this Party under varied angles with an Electoral History which aims at the game of scales between the national results and the implanting of the Party in cities, provinces and Chilean regions. Then, an Ideological History tries to understand the project of the Third Way, which aims to be an alternative to the communism and capitalism in the context of the Cold War. Then, a Militant History has for objectives to distinguish generations of DC leaders. Finally, a History of the international insertion of the Chilean Christian Democracy testifies of the importance of its relations with the United States and with the European and Latin American "brother parties" in the context of the Cold War and the fight against the Cuban Revolution. Beyond the example of the Chilean PDC, this thesis is dedicated to the question of the historicity of the Christian Democratic project of the Third Way.

Keywords

• Political History
• Chile
• Christian Democracy
• Catholicism
• 20 Century
• Militantism