Democracy in Austria
Description
The essays in this volume are dedicated to the ups and downs of 100 years of Austrian democracy. On the occasion of the founding of the First Austrian Republic on November 12, 1918, Austrians celebrated the 100th anniversary of this event in recent Austrian history. Due to the deep divisions of the Austrian political camps (parties) democratic governance was troubled in the 1920s and ended in authoritarian rule in 1933. After World War II, the two principal political parties 脰VP (Christian conservatives) and SP脰 (Socialists), learned to work with one another in grand coalition governments and established a stable democratic regime. With the "Freedom Party" (FP脰) turning populist, xenophobic and anti-European Union, paired with the arrival of new parties such as the environmentalist/progressive "Greens," the Austrian party system realigned in 1986 and new center-right coalitions (脰VP and FP脰) came to govern Austria. Today political campaigns in Austria, too, are run on social media and millennials have less faith in democracy.
Author Bio
G眉nter Bischof is the Marshall Plan Professor of History and the Director of Center Austria at the University of New Orleans.
David M. Wineroither is a Senior Research Advisor at National University for Public Service in Budapest and a Senior Research Fellow at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.
