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Abstract
Despite its centrality in European politics, Christian democracy came to be the object of systematic research only recently. We review the research that has emerged since the mid-1990s and pinpoint its contributions in specifying the origins, evolution, and broader impact of Christian democratic parties. We begin with a discussion of the origins of Christian democracy and show that it is a distinctive political movement; we review the state of contemporary Christian democratic politics, describe the impact of Christian democracy on the process of European integration, evaluate the content of the Christian democratic welfare regime, and explore whether the European Christian democratic experience travels outside Europe and Christianity, especially in the world of political Islam. We conclude with an overview of the future outlook of this political movement.