Tipping the Balance Scale? Rightward Momentum, Party Agency and Austrian Party Politics

Abstract

Austrian mainstream parties perpetuated one of the longest standing grand coalition governments across Western Europe. Over at least two decades, the balance of power had shifted firmly toward the ideological right. The post-war Austrian party system has lacked viable centre parties and has failed to produce a green party on the scale of importance of those of many of its West European neighbours. It does not have workers parties apart from the mainstream Social Democratic Party of Austria (Sozialdemokratische Partei Österreichs, SPÖ). The lack of depth or options for coalition-building on the political left in the Austrian party system has produced unique opportunities for coalition governments on the right in the early twenty-first century. Yet, Austrian parties on the right proved seemingly unable to capitalize upon such opportunities in order to entrench a right of centre bloc of power. Despite the break with grand coalition government in 1999 to form the coalition government between the Austrian People's Party (Österreichische Volkspartei, ÖVP) and the Freedom Party of Austria (Freiheitliche Partei Österreichs, FPÖ), the ÖVP–SPÖ government made a rather non-triumphant return in 2006 and again through snap elections of 2008. This article explores the difficulties encountered by parties in their attempts to capitalize upon the potential for sustaining a right power bloc by examining the strategic alignments and interaction between Austria's parties from1990–2012. It considers the trajectory of the parties electorally and in public office or opposition, examining the context and strategies employed at various points and especially as fortunes change. It argues that the Austrian far right traded the goal of policy for that of votes and later office, all the while becoming more domesticated and vulnerable to co-optation when in office. This led to party splits and some measure of party decline. Meanwhile, other parties including the ÖVP have suffered from an identity crisis adapting slowly to the rise of the FPÖ through the 1990s making strategic changes in the most recent decade to try and confront the FPÖ more directly.

Keywords:

• Austria
• party systems
• right-wing
• conservatives
• populist right

General Note

All interviews were conducted in Vienna between November 2001 and March 2002 or during June 2012. All interviews with members of the party general secretariats took place in private offices at party headquarters. MPs were interviewed in their private offices, parliamentary offices or parliamentary club lounges.

Notes

¹ Austria has four main political parties: the mainstream right Austrian People's Party (Österreichische Volkspartei, ÖVP); the mainstream left Social Democratic Party of Austria (Sozialdemokratische Partei Österreichs, SPÖ); the far right Freedom Party of Austria (Freiheitliche Partei Österreichs, FPÖ); and the Greens.

² One possible exception is Switzerland, which is also highly consensual.

³ The first instance occurred in 1983 with the government formed between the then left of centre FPÖ and the SPÖ.

⁴ Rose cites Switzerland as the only other country featuring such a long enduring occurrence of successive grand coalition governments.

⁵ Homogeneity versus heterogeneity is calculated by Ennser using data from Benoit and Laver's (2006) expert survey, which classifies parties on a left to right scale based on expert assessment of their policy positions in six key issues areas including: taxes vs spending, social policy, EU authority, environment, decentralization and immigration.

⁶ There is the exception of the three one-party SPÖ governments of the 1970s.

⁷ These three issues are suggested as important for Austria in Art (2006); Kriesi et al., (2006); Dolezal (2008).

⁸ Ökosozialemarktwirtschaft, a rather innovative ÖVP programme emanating from Joseph Riegler that has spread to other countries in Europe and their conservative parties suggesting trade-offs between market economics and environmental concerns.

⁹ Another small party, Liberal Forum, emerged with many of its members breaking away from the FPÖ in 1993. However, its national level support and presence faded after only a few years.

¹⁰ Quote in German: ‘Wenn jemand gewählt wird, wird er gewählt. Ende. Damit muss ich mich auseinandersetzen’.

¹¹ Potentially amenable parts of the BZÖ suggested include the faction surrounding former FPÖ party elites such as Peter Westenthaler and Gerald Grosz, with a less amenable part being the faction of neo-liberal economics ideologues surrounding party leader Josef Bucher. However, there are known rivalries between Strache and Westenthaler (Turner-Graham, 2008, p. 186).

¹² The heimat emphasis is evident in the titles of the section headers of the comprehensive programme published by the party think tank FPÖ Bildungsinstitut titled Handbuch Freiheitlicher Politik, 3. Auflage (2011), Wien, Österreich.

¹³ Successful is defined in terms of electoral results, agenda-setting influence, and in terms of securing office through coalition government.