ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the analysis of the church's strategy of intervention in the public sphere and considers its effect on the deepening of the religious and national cleavages dividing liberals and nationalists. It then begins in the immediate post-transition period and ends with the consolidation of the party system and describes the church's pursuit of influence over democratic institutions and policy-making and its effects on the process of party formation on the right of the party system. The chapter also analyzes the impact of Polish and Spanish church strategies on the shaping of political conflicts and the process of cleavage formation. It further shows that church strategies had strong implications for the shape of political cleavages and party competition in the two countries. In both countries National Catholic parties were relevant political forces characterized by an introverted nationalism averse to the sharing of sovereignty with other nations.
