!!!Politische Parteien

Political Parties, political groups mostly organised on a national 
scale to bring together citizens holding similar political views for 
the purpose of gaining influence at the national level and formulating 
political demands.

\\
The mass parties typical of modern democracies, with a party machinery 
of full-time party officers and headed by full-time politicians, did 
not emerge in Austria until the last third of the 19th century, when 
the Social-Democrats pioneered this development. Initially, these 
parties were organised along ideological lines and were in many cases 
hostile to one another. Thus, three political "camps" which first 
emerged in the Austro-Hungarian monarchy continue to exist in the 
Second Republic: the Christian Social, the Social Democrat, and the 
German Nationalist/Liberal camps. The  First Republic was dominated by 
political conflict, which culminated in the Civil War of 1934, the 
prohibition of the Social-Democratic Labour Party and the 
establishment of authoritarian rule supported by the Catholic camp. 
After the years of dictatorship under  National Socialism it was the 
political parties that re-established the Republic in 1945 (as they 
had also founded the First Republic in 1918). The leaders of the 
principal parties, OeVP ( Oesterreichische Volkspartei) and SPOe ( 
Sozialdemokratische Partei Oesterreichs) agreed on a pragmatic 
political course of cooperation ("Grand Coalition"). The former 
ideologically oriented parties developed into parties seeking to 
integrate the masses ("popular parties") by letting themselves be 
guided by election results. At the same time, their political 
platforms tended to become increasingly similar. General prosperity, 
the reduced significance of social background and religious views as a 
cause of social conflict, and the decrease in the number of voters 
whose voting behaviour was chiefly dictated by tradition (farmers and 
workers voting for the OeVP and SPOe, respectively) also helped to 
diminish political polarisation. The proportion of members of the "new 
middle classes" (white-collar workers, civil servants), whose party 
loyalty appears to be flagging, has increased among the members and 
voters of both the OeVP and SPOe.

\\
The economic upswing and social stability of the  Second Republic 
initially benefited the "large" parties: During the 1960s and 1970s 
parliamentary (National Council) elections invariably gave the OeVP 
and SPOe approximately 90% of the votes. In the elections of 1990, 
their combined vote declined to 75%. Cases of political corruption and 
growing doubts about the ability of the government parties to solve 
current political problems have enhanced the readiness of the general 
public to criticise the political parties. In consequence, the 
proportion of "floating" voters has gone up (1990 National Council 
election: 17%, 1994: 19%). A new party, the Gruene Alternative ( Green 
Parties), which has highlighted issues long neglected in political 
discourse (in particular environmental issues), has been represented 
in the National Council since 1986. Formerly a small party, the FPOe, 
( Freiheitliche Partei Oesterreichs)succeeded in presenting itself as 
a protest party. In the 1994 election, it rose to a medium-sized party 
which obtained 22,6 % of votes. In 1993 the  Liberales Forum was 
formed out of a protest group which detached itself from the FPOe.

\\
Criticism of the large parties has fallen on fertile ground since 
Austria can be considered the prototype of a "party state": Membership 
in both the OeVP and SPOe is extraordinarily high by international 
standards. The political parties not only determine the activities of 
the  Nationalrat and the  Federal Government, but are also represented 
in the public administration, the major  Interest Groups ( Chambers, 
the Austrian  Federation of Trade Unions ), in public radio and TV ( 
ORF), in the nationalised enterprises and in schools. Since the 
importance of the media in modern democracies favours the access of 
party leaders to information and thus enables them to organise their 
election campaigns efficiently, the influence of the rank-and-file 
members has been greatly reduced.

!Literature
A. Pelinka and F. Plasser (ed.), Das oesterreichische 
Parteiensystem, 1988.


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