The article focuses on the way in which social and modernization changes affected the thinking of two remarkable Catholic women. It is about negotiation strategies (for the Union of Catholic Women’s Foundation) pursued by these women towards Catholic men. Despite a certain pluralism, the author shows that the thinking of Catholic women shifted — but this was not just a question of adopting liberal positions, but their transformation into a specific religious ideology. The image of femininity was still present in the concept of “motherhood“, but not in terms of biological sciences, but in cultural and social terms. It was Catholic feminism, which was not accepted by the mainstream in the Catholic milieu.
The Christian Socialists played an important role in Austria’s interwar party system. Their ambivalent attitude to parliamentary democracy was a reflection of a disaffected political culture. The party demanded the implementation of corporate elements in the political system. Repeated failures to create a government coalition with a stable majority in the National Council, fear of a loss of power to ever-more popular Nazis and the consequences of the Great Depression strengthened ideas within Christian Socialists for extra-parliamentary rule. In spring 1933, authoritative party representatives took advantage of unprecedented events in the National Council to begin the gradual elimination of parliamentary democracy. The passive attitude of the opposition and the essential indifference of the Austrian public helped the implementation of the authoritative changes.
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