Austria - An economic and political overview.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

1 INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………………………        Page 2

        1.1 Austria………………………………………………………………………        Page 2

        1.2 Austria and WW2………………………………………………………….        Page 2

        1.3 Economical situation……………………………………………………….        Page 3

        1.4 Political situation…………………………………………………………...        Page 4

                1.4.1 The Social Democratic Party of Austria-SPO…………………..        Page 4

                1.4.2 The Austrian People’s Party-OVP……………………………….        Page 4

                1.4.3 The Freedom Party of Austria……………………………………        Page 4

        1.5 Haider………………………………………………………………………..        Page 7

                1.5.1 Who is Haider?……………………………………………………        Page 7

        1.6 Austria and the European Union………………………………………….        Page 7

        1.7 Minorities in Austria……………………………………………………….        Page 8

2 POLITICS…………………………………………………………………………….        Page 10

        2.1 Reactions……………………………………………………………………        Page 11

        2.2 Sanctions……………………………………………………………………        Page 11

        2.3 Analysis……………………………………………………………………..        Page 12

        2.5 Influence on other countries………………………………………………        Page 14

                2.5.1 Germany………………………………………………………….        Page 14

                2.5.2 France…………………………………………………………….        Page 14

                2.5.3 Switzerland……………………………………………………….        Page

                2.5.4 Italy……………………………………………………………….        Page

        2.6 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………        Page

3 ECONOMY…………………………………………………………………………..        Page

        3.1 Global economy overview………………………………………………….        Page

                3.1.1 Agricultural sector.…………………………………        ……………        Page

                3.1.2 Industrial sector…………………………………………………..        Page

                3.1.3 Industrial sector…………………………………………………..        Page

                3.1.4 Foreign trade……………………………………………………..        Page

        3.2 Economical features………………………………………………………...        Page

        3.3 Impact on Austria’s Economy……………………………………………...        Page

        3.4 General behavior of Austria’s economy…………………………………...        Page

        3.5 Austria’s export in danger?………………………………………………...        Page

        3.6 Investments in Austria……………………………………………………..        Page

        3.7 Business in not politics…………………………………………………….        Page

4 APPENDIX……………………………………………………………………………        Page

5 BIBLIOGRAPHY……………………………………………………………………..        Page

                


INTRODUCTION

Austria

Austria is a federal republic situated in the centre of Europe. It is made out of nine independent ‘Bundesländer’ with Vienna as the political and economic capital. Given it’s location, it has since time been a cross-roads of travel routes between the major European economical and cultural regions.

Austria has a population of 8,131,111, people, with German as the national language.

Ethnic groups living in Austria are mainly from Eastern-European origin. This can be contributed to the fact that after the war, Austria became a destination for ethnic Germans, who fled from or were driven out of their homes in Czechoslovakia, Romania, and Yugoslavia.

With regard to social structure it can be said that the country is conservative. Even today it is still important what family and social class you are born into and in which part of the country.

Austria and World War II

The WWII is a black chapter in Austria’s history. There is always the fact that Adolf Hitler was of Austrian nationality, but more importantly Austria found unification with Germany on a voluntary basis, known as the ‘Anschluss’.  

To provide a legal cober for the Anschluss, Hitler arranged a referendum for April 10, 1938.

This referendum was based on pan-Germanism and had an almost total support from the Austrian citizens, although the outcome was undoubtedly influenced by Nazi intimidation. It is important to realise that the positive vote reflected the Austrians' desire for change far more than it did show widespread support for Hitler and Nazism.

With the benefit the hindsight it can be said that the Austrians were naive in presuming that they would form a political merger, instead of being turned in a servant of Nazi-Germany.

The pronounced Jewish presence in key areas of economic, political, and cultural life--especially in Vienna--had associated Jews with many developments in Austrian society that were opposed by the country's conservative, rural, and Catholic population.

Unification with the Third Reich gave this big part of the population the chance to express their anti-Semitic views and Austria became the testing ground for the political acceptability of policies against Jews and other minorities later adopted in Germany.

So how can it be that in post-war years Austria, a part of the Nazi-regime, has not gone through a similar process of trials and restrictions as Germany has? First of all they did loose there independence and did not have any political influence after the Anschluss. But more important for Austria's future, was the position the Allies took on the Austrian issue. In November 1943, the foreign ministers of the Soviet Union, Britain, and the United States met and issued the Moscow Declaration. The declaration held Austria liable for its participation in the war, effectively giving it

the status of an enemy state. But at the same time the declaration described Austria as "the first victim of Hitlerite aggression".

It can be argued that the way the war ended in Austria and their assigned victim position is still influential today. Unlike in Germany, in Austria there has never been an open condemnation of people who supported Nazi beliefs. Especially in politics in post-war years there were still people who held right-.extremist and German-superiority views. Especially the FPO has been supported by people who held Nazi beliefs and during the 1980’s an ex-SS officer, Kurt Waldheim, was even elected president, but his controversial wartime record ended his political career after international pressure.

Austria’s Political System

Political scientists considered Austria to be a good example of a constitutional democracy. This can be explained as a system consisting of a couple of distinctive groups who all form a ‘pillar’ supporting the ‘temple’ of society. In Austria the three major social camps, also called ‘Lager’, are; the socialist, the Catholic-conservative , and the German-nationalist.

The most important factors in determining to which subculture a person belongs, and the political party, are geographic location (rural or urban), socio-economic status, and professional occupation. The Austrian political arena has been dominated by the socialist and Catholic-conservative camps for virtually the entire post-war period, and the German-nationalist camp performed in the background.

A closer look on Austria’s political parties can be found in Appendix

The rise of the FPO

Until the late 1980s, Austria's political system seemed stable and unchangeable, due to high social immobility. But for years cracks had been formed in the system, because people lost their confidence in the two big coalition parties. Having a very conservative and static political situation, characterised by nepotism and centralised rule by Vienna, has resulted in voters looking for change and led to the breakdown of long-standing voter loyalties,

The weakened hold of the Lager on Austrian society and politics created opportunities for smaller parties. Especially services-sector, or white-collar, employees were often part of a block of so-called floating voters who did not identify with a particular party. The party benefiting the most from the losses by the major parties has been the FPÖ.

In 1989 the FPÖ booked successes in provincial elections, with Haider becoming governor of the province of Carinthia. But the ÖVP and SPÖ forced him to step down after they passed a vote of no confidence after Haider again made Neo-Nazi tinted remarks. But this was only benefiting their popularity and in the 1991 provincial elections they had outstanding showings. The FPO gained votes in four consecutive elections increasing it’s position in a impressive way.

The outcome of the most recent national elections, in October ’99, has resulted in a lot of controversy, political games and the questioning of the power within, and of, the EU.

During the campaigns FPO’s main point was their fear of foreigners in Austrian society ( also see paragraph ?.?.). The SPO as a result stressed their opposition against Haider and his party. At the same time the OVP made clear that they would join the opposition if the voters did not give them enough support, trusting that people wanted to maintain the old coalition.

The result was a SPO-victory, than the FPO, followed by the OVP. While formating the new government a lot of possible combinations were suggested, werein the OVP put itself in a difficult position. They refused to work with the FPO, and could not agree with the SPO on the division of important functions

The SPO suggested that the FPO could form a minority government with them, hoping that that the FPO would support them in important decisions. But the FPO sensed their power, and demanded on coalition on more or less equal grounds.

Join now!

On February 4th the new government took their position in Vienna. This is when nations across the globe and especially in Europe awoke. In a democratic, prosporous, European country a right-extremist party was allowed to have a big say in the day to day running of the country.

In chapter ?.?, we explore what has happened immediately after this event, and what the effects were.

Economic Situation

Austria depends heavily on foreign trade, which is not surprising for a small European country. Its central location in Europe reinforces that dependency and gives Austria a wide range of trading ...

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