Popularism

Popularism is a conception of the people, a conception of the Common Good and a conception of democracy, found first in the works of Don Luigi Sturzo, and also in the works of Jacques Maritain.

In Popularism, The People are conceived to be completely social beings, who are held together in society by organised natural communities; the family, the neighbourhood, the parish, professional and vocational organisations, etc. ​​​The Common Good is a means to the spiritual ends of the people. The Common Good is where the particular and general interests are reconciled, as realised in harmonious society. Democracy is the means for this goal of the Common Good to be realised. Thus Democracy must involve the people as a whole, in respect to their natural communities, as well as meet the needs of the people.

The Italian Prime Minister, Alcide De Gasperi, emulated the Popularist ideal in his speech before the executive committee of the Italian DC on March 20, 1954:

"“We cannot be a party simply of wage-earners or of capitalists, of farmers or of landowners or trade unions. We must rather aspire to become a party that represents the whole nation . . . And since the nation expects balanced solutions that take into account all social factors, for as long as society is constituted by different classes that evolve, fuse and transform, we must strive to find convergences between them, which means: political solutions that are in the interest of most and cooperation amongst the social parts.”"

In practice many Christian democratic parties have sought to achieve Popularism in Politics, through forming parties that aim to include all aspects of society. This has led to the notable inclusion of both Unions and Big Business, and as a result Christian democratic parties breach the class divide more than Conservative, Liberal and Social Democratic Parties.

Parties that have taken Popularism in their names;
 * Austrian People's Party
 * Christian Democratic People's Party of Switzerland
 * Christian Social People's Party
 * Christian Peoples Party
 * European People's Party
 * Italian Popular Party (1919)
 * Italian Popular Party (1994)
 * Roman Catholic People's Party
 * People's Party (Spain)
 * Popular Democratic Party
 * Popular Republican Movement

​​​​​​(A note, Protestant Christian Democratic parties such as the Evangelical peoples party in Switzerland, the Christian Peoples parties in Scandinavia and the Christian Social Peoples Service in the Weimar Republic, do not seem to be inspired by Popularism).