By a Return to God’s Word: A Comparative History of the AR and CS

Abstract

Confronted with worsening conditions of international capitalism and moral degradation of society at the hands of anti-clerical liberal governments in the late 19th century, both Dutch Protestants and German Austrian Catholics coalesced into two social confessional movements that would dominate the interwar politics of their respective societies. The Dutch AR and Cisleithanian CS, respectively led by charismatic democrats Ds. Abraham Kuyper and Dr. Karl Lueger, sought the moral emancipation of the Kleine Luyden or Kleine Leute from Liberalism and Capitalism. Although originating from fundamentally different confessions and societies, the leadership of these social confessional movements perceived their mission in similar rhetoric and solutions. Through an analysis of the rhetoric and policy preferences of the leadership, the trajectories of these parties on two issues, the Social Question and the Jewish Question, were compared through their opposition to the dominant liberal regime into mass-based political parties and eventual lynchpins of conservative coalitions in the Fin de Siècle. This analysis led to the conclusion that AR and CS had similar trajectories with regards to anti-capitalism, employing anti-capitalist rhetoric against liberal executives, only to increasingly cooperate with capitalists in response to a growing Socialist movement in both countries. On the other hand, the trajectory of anti-Semitic critiques differed between the AR and CS, while both were formulated in periods of personal political failure, Dr. Lueger’s anti-Semitism provided a springboard to political power, while Ds. Kuyper’s anti-Semitism proved controversial and counterproductive as a means to power in Dutch society.