Peter Gerlich

Corporatism in Crisis: Stability and Change of Social Partnership in Austria

While recent developments in Western Europe provide numerous examples of the instability and decay of corporatist arrangements in the face of economic crisis, Austrian social partnership still exhibits remarkable stability. The article tries to explain this stability of corporatist politics in Austria. The Austrian case is also used to demonstrate some limitations of the academic literature on the breakdown of corporatism. However, stability in the Austrian case does not mean that nothing has changed. Changes have occurred within the existing institutional framework. Two main factors in the transformation of Austrian social partnership are pointed out, namely socio-cultural and political changes. Finally, some future perspectives of Austrian corporatism are outlined.

Prime Ministers and Cabinet Decision-Making Processes

Of all the components of cabinet life, perhaps the one most likely to give rise to major variations is the prime ministerial component. This is not only because prime ministers are the most visible, most powerful, and most important politicians; this is also because impressionistic evidence suggests that some heads of governments are strong and others are weak; this may be a result of personality differences, peculiarities of the cabinet under consideration, or general characteristics of the political system of the country concerned. Thus one might expect coalitions to be headed more often by less forceful prime ministers than single-party majority governments, although differences among coalitions are large and the impact of prime ministers is likely to vary appreciably as a result.1 Structural elements and personality traits tend also to be intertwined: the politicians who may become prime ministers in a coalition context will almost certainly have a different personality from those who become prime ministers in single-party majority governments: in coalitions, the main skills required will probably be diplomacy and compromise, while strong leadership may be more at a premium in single-party majority governments.

Austria: Routine and Ritual

The Austrian federal Constitution, which dates back to 1920, contains only very few provisions concerning the organisation, tasks and procedures of the federal government, as the collective top executive body is officially called. This is rather surprising since the political culture of the country usually places a great deal of emphasis on legality and legal regulations (Gerlich, 1981). However, the few explicit norms concerning the cabinet have been supplemented by constitutional conventions which derive from long established state practice and are therefore usually respected.

Parlamente und Demokratie im Alltagsverständnis

Der Kontrast zwischen der Ersten Republik und der Zweiten Republik Osterreich fordert zur Erklarung heraus. Nach dem I. Weltkrieg ist die I. Republik aus dem Zusammenbruch des Habs-burger Reichs entstanden und auf Grundlage einer von den grosen politischen Gruppierungen einvernehmlich erstellten Verfassung eingerichtet worden. Dieser Versuch einer parlamentarischen Republik endete 1934 mit der Ausschaltung der Volksvertretung, Burgerkrieg und der Etablierung eines autoritaren Regimes. Im Gegensatz dazu erreichte die nach dem Ende des II. Weltkrieges wiedererrichtete II. Republik auf der Basis derselben Verfassung im wesentlichen von denselben politischen Kraften getragen Wiederaufbau, nach 1955 volle staatliche Unabhangigkeit und bis heute wirtschaftliche Erfolge. Das die Erklarung fur diese unterschiedliche Entwicklung trotz weitgehend ahnlicher Rahmenbedingungen sicher auch in Veranderungen der politischen Kultur Osterreichs zu suchen ist und eine bemerkenswerte Leistung des Herstellens und Aufrechterhaltens der Legitimitat staatlicher Einrichtungen darstellt, liegt nahe.