The Austrian People's Party or Österreichische Volkspartei is an Austrian political party. It is roughly comparable to the German Christian Democratic Union in terms of both platform and voter demographics. The People's Party has been founded immediately following the reestablishment of the Federal Republic of Austria in 1945 and has been a major player in Austrian politics ever since. The ethnically and culturally homogenous nation state of Austria is the small but prosperous remnant of Austria-Hungary, a vast multinational empire foundered in 1918. ... A political party is a political organization subscribing to a certain ideology or formed around very special issues with the aim to participate in power, usually by participating in elections. ... Politics of Austria Categories: Election related stubs | Elections in Austria ... The Leopoldine Wing of Hofburg Imperial Palace in Vienna: home to the offices of the Federal President. ... Presidential elections were held in Austria on 25 April 2004. ... The National Council or Nationalrat is one of the two houses of the Federal Assembly, the bicameral federal parliament of the Federal Republic of Austria. ... The election for the National Council of 24 November 2002, saw the consevative Austrian Peoples Party win the government, taking seats from the nationalist Freedom of Austria Party whom it was in coalition with. ... In Austria, the legislative election of October 3, 1999 (elections for the National Council of Austria) caused a major upheaval in the political landscape. ... The elections to the Austrian National Council talking place in fall of 1995 were the first to follow Austrias accession to the EU and followed only a year after the 1994 elections. ... The elections to the Austrian National Council talking place in fall of 1994 were the first to follow Austrias agreement to join the EU and the EU referendum taking place in late spring of 1994. ... The elections to the Austrian National Council talking place in 1990 mostly resulted in losses to the ÖVP, then the junior partner in a coalition with the SPÖ, and gains to the FPÖ. Categories: Elections in Austria ... The elections to the Austrian National Council talking place in fall of 1986 followed shortly after Jörg Haider had ousted Norbert Steger as the leader of the FPÖ at the party convention in Innsbruck. ... The elections to the Austrian National Council talking place in 1983 were the last campaign where the SPÖ was led by Chancellor Bruno Kreisky, who had been the head of government since 1970. ... The elections to the Austrian National Council of 1979 resulted in small gains to the SPÖ led by Chancellor Bruno Kreisky, which had an absolute majority at that time. ... The elections to the Austrian National Council of 1975 resulted in no changes to the composition of the parliament. ... The elections to the Austrian National Council of 1971, held only one year after the 1970 elections, were the first after a reform of election law that increased the number of seats in parliament from 165 to 183. ... The elections to the Austrian National Council of 1970 were the first where a plurality was won by the SPÖ, now led by Bruno Kreisky. ... The elections to the Austrian National Council of 1966 resulted in a victory for the ÖVP headed by Josef Klaus. ... The elections to the Austrian National Council of 1962 resulted in a continuation of the coalition between the ÖVP headed by Alfons Gorbach and the SPÖ headed by Bruno Pittermann. ... In the elections to the Austrian National Council of 1959, the SPÖ leaped ahead of the ÖVP in votes, but trailed behind it by one seat. ... The elections to the Austrian National Council of 1956 were the first elections after the conclusion of the Austrian State Treaty. ... The elections to the Austrian National Council of 1953 were the first elections after the KPÖ had left the coalition with the ÖVP and SPÖ in 1950. ... The elections to the Austrian National Council of 1949 were the first elections after World War II when former Nazis were allowed to vote. ... The elections to the Austrian National Council held in fall of 1945 were the first after World War II. Surprisingly, the KPÖ only gained four seats, even though it was strongly supported by the Soviet Union, which had its troups in the east of the country. ... A political party is a political organization that subscribes to a certain ideology and seeks to attain political power within a government. ... The Christian Democratic Union (CDU - Christlich-Demokratische Union) is a political party in Germany, founded after World War II by Konrad Adenauer among others. ... 1945 was a common year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ... The ethnically and culturally homogenous nation state of Austria is the small but prosperous remnant of Austria-Hungary, a vast multinational empire foundered in 1918. ...

Platform

With regard to social policy, the Austrian People's Party is a classical conservative movement, running on a platform of respect for tradition and stability of social order. In particular, it is expressly not interested in strengthening Austria's incomplete separation of church and state and appears to be somewhat skeptical of affirmative action, gay rights, and other forms of real or perceived Social engineering. For most of its existence, the People's Party has explicitly defined itself as Catholic and anti-socialist; the ideal of subsidiarity as defined by the encyclical Quadragesimo Anno is generally considered one of the historical cornerstones of its agenda. Conservatism or political conservatism is any of several historically related political philosophies or political ideologies. ... The separation of church and state is a concept in modern thought and practice, whereby the structures of state or national government are kept separate from those of religious institutions. ... Affirmative action (US English), or positive discrimination (British English), is a policy or a program providing advantages for people of a minority group who are seen to have traditionally been discriminated against, with the aim of creating a more egalitarian society. ... The gay rights movement is a collection of loosely aligned civil rights groups, human rights groups, support groups and political activists seeking acceptance, tolerance and equality for non-heterosexual, (homosexual, bisexual), and transgender people - despite the fact that it is typically referred to as the gay rights movement, members also... In the field of political science, social engineering is a mainly pejorative term used to describe the intended effects of authoritarian systems of government. ... The color red and particularly the red flag are traditional symbols of Socialism. ... Subsidiarity is the idea that matters should be handled by the lowest competent authority. ... In the ancient Church, an encyclical was a circular letter sent to all the churches of a particular area. ... Quadragesimo Anno is an encyclical by Pope Pius XI, issued 15 May 1931, 40 years after Rerum Novarum (thus the name, Latin for the fortieth year). Written as a response to the Great Depression, it calls for the establishment of a social order based on the principle of subsidiarity. ...

With regard to economic policy, the People's Party advocates what is probably best described as new liberalism, endorsing the reduction of Austria's relatively large public sector, welfare reform, and general deregulation. With regard to foreign affairs, it strongly supports European integration. Over the last two decades, the People's party has also adopted a more pronouncedly environmentalist stance than is typical for conservative movements. New liberalism (also called modern liberalism or social liberalism) is a stance in political economy that argues for extensive government regulation and partial intervention in the economy, though much less than what is advocated by social democrats. ... The public sector is that part of economic and administrative life that deals with the delivery of goods and services by and for the government, whether national, regional or local/municipal. ... Welfare reform is the name for a political movement in countries with a state-administered social welfare system to institute changes in that system, generally in a more conservative direction. ... Deregulation is the process by which governments remove selected regulations on business in order to (in theory) encourage the efficient operation of markets. ... European integration is the process of political and economic (and in some cases social and cultural) integration of European states into a tighter bloc. ... Environmentalism is the support or involvement with the environmental movement by environmentalists. ...

The People's Party's position within the traditional political spectrum is hard to mark down. On the one hand, its views on economic policy are slightly right-of-center if seen in the context of Europe's political landscape, and its views on social policy are right-of-center in the context of the political landscape of almost any Western democracy. On the other hand, its views on economic policy are still arguably closer to those of classical social democracy than to those of classical laissez-faire capitalism, and it advocates decidedly more economic interventionism than most ostensibly left-wing parties in Europe. Party leaders and intellectuals have been known to approvingly comment on select aspects of economic philosophies like those of Margaret Thatcher or Friedrich Hayek, but the party's rank and file mostly do not follow suit. While the party is seen as more or less rightist by many Austrians and other Europeans, it would appear centrist or possibly even leftist to most American observers. A political spectrum is a way of comparing or visualizing different political positions, by placing them upon one or more geometric axes. ... World map showing location of Europe A satellite composite image of Europe Europe is geologically and geographically a peninsula, forming the westernmost part of Eurasia. ... Social democracy is a political ideology emerging in the late 19th and early 20th centuries from supporters of Marxism who believed that the transition to a socialist society could be achieved through democratic evolutionary rather than revolutionary means. ... Laissez-faire is short for laissez faire, laissez passer, a French phrase meaning to let things alone, let them pass. First used by the eighteenth century Physiocrats as an injunction against government interference with trade, it is now used as a synonym for strict free market economics. ... Economic interventionism is a term used to describe activity undertaken by a central government to affect a countrys economy in an attempt to increase economic growth and/or standards of living. ... The Right Honourable Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, LG, OM, PC, FRS (born 13 October 1925) is a British stateswoman and was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990, the only woman as of 2005 to serve in that position. ... Friedrich von Hayek Friedrich August von Hayek (May 8, 1899 in Vienna – March 23, 1992 in Freiburg) was an economist and social scientist of the Austrian School, noted for his defense of free-market capitalism against a rising tide of socialist thought in the mid-20th century. ... In politics, right-wing, the political right, or simply the right, are terms which refer, with no particular precision, to the segment of the political spectrum in opposition to left-wing politics. ... In politics, centrism usually refers to the political ideal of promoting moderate policies which land in the middle ground between different political extremes. ... In politics, left-wing, political left, leftism, or simply the left, are terms which refer (with no particular precision) to the segment of the political spectrum typically associated with any of several strains of socialism, social democracy, or liberalism (especially in the American sense of the word), or with opposition...

Demographics

The Austrian People's Party is popular mainly among white collar employees, large and small business owners, and farmers. In particular, it is backed by a majority of Austria's civil servants, a remarkably large and influential group due to the size and scope of Austria's government bureaucracy. Austria's blue collar workers, by comparison, tend to endorse the Social Democratic Party and the Freedom Party. All in all, People's Party supporters are comparatively educated and affluent. As its supporters like to point out, the People's Party enjoys growing popularity with younger voters according to a number of recent public opinion polls. White-collar workers perform tasks which are less laborious yet often more highly paid than blue-collar workers, who do manual work. ... A small business may be defined as a business with a small number of employees. ... Farmer spreading grasshopper bait in his alfalfa field. ... A majority is a subset of a group that is more than half of the entire group. ... A blue-collar worker is a working class employee who performs manual or technical labor, such as in a factory or in technical maintenance trades, in contrast to a white-collar worker, who does non-manual work generally at a desk. ... The Social Democratic Party of Austria (Sozialdemokratische Partei Österreichs, SPÖ) is a political party in Austria. ... The Austrian Freedom Party (Freiheitliche Partei Österreichs, abbreviated to FPÖ) is an Austrian political party usually associated with the name of Jörg Haider. ...

History

The Austrian People's Party is the successor of the Christian Social Party, a staunchly conservative movement founded in 1893 by Karl Lueger, mayor of Vienna and highly controversial right-wing populist. In its present form, the People's Party was established immediately after the restoration of Austria's independence in 1945; it has been represented in both the Federal Assembly ever since. In terms of Federal Assembly seats, the People's Party has consistently been the strongest or second-strongest party; as such, it has lead or at least been a partner in most Austria's federal cabinets. The People's Party has also been consistently controlling the state governments of the rural and strongly Catholic states of Lower Austria, Upper Austria, Salzburg, Styria, Tyrol, and Vorarlberg. It is less popular in the city state of Vienna and in the rural but less strongly Catholic states of Burgenland and Carinthia. Only in 2004, it lost its plurality in the State of Salzburg for the first time. All things considered, the People's Party would have been near-incontestably dominating Austrian politics had it not been not for the comparatively populous and solidly social democratic metropolis of Vienna. The Christian Social Party was an Austrian political party from 1893 to 1933 and a predecessor of the contemporary Austrian Peoples Party. ... 1893 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... Karl Lueger (October 24, 1844-March 10, 1910) was an Austrian politician and mayor of Vienna, known for his anti-semitism and racist policies. ... Vienna (German: Wien [viːn]) is the capital of Austria, and also one of Austrias nine federal states (Bundesland Wien). ... In politics, right-wing, the political right, or simply the right, are terms which refer, with no particular precision, to the segment of the political spectrum in opposition to left-wing politics. ... Populism is a political ideology or rhetorical style that holds that the common person is oppressed by the elite in society, which exists only to serve its own interests, and therefore, the instruments of the State need to be grasped from this self-serving elite and instead used for the... 1945 was a common year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ... The Federal Assembly of Austria or Österreichische Bundesversammlung is a federal-level deliberative body consisting of the members of the two houses of the Austrian parliament, the National Council and the Federal Council, in joint session. ... Rural areas are sparsely settled places away from the influence of large cities and towns. ... Since Austria is a federal republic according to the constitutional framework of Austrian politics, Austrias nine provinces are customarily referred to as States of Austria or Bundesländer, singular Bundesland. ... Lower Austria (Niederösterreich) is one of the fifty federal states or Bundesländer in Austria. ... Upper Austria (Ober sterreich) is one of the nine federal states or Bundesl nder of Austria. ... Salzburg (area 7154 sq. ... Styria (Steiermark in German, Štajerska in Slovenian) is a federal state or Bundesland, located in the south east of Austria. ... Tyrol (Tirol in German) is a federal state or Bundesland, located in the west of Austria. ... Vorarlberg is the westernmost federal state of Austria. ... A city-state is a region controlled exclusively by a city. ... Minorities and neighbours Burgenland has notable Croatian (29 to 45 thousand) and Hungarian (5 to 15 thousand) minorities. ... Carinthia (German Kärnten, Slovenian Koroška) is a federal state or Bundesland, located in the south of Austria. ... 2004 is a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... A plurality (or relative majority) is the largest share of something, which may or may not be a majority. ... Salzburg (area 7154 sq. ... The Social Democratic Party of Austria (Sozialdemokratische Partei Österreichs, SPÖ) is a political party in Austria. ... A metropolis (in Greek metera = mother and polis = city/town) is a major city, which is an economical and cultural center for some country, and usually a hub for its international connections. ...

After the Austrian legislative election, 1999, the People's Party formed in 2000 a coalition government with the right-wing populist Jörg Haider's Austrian Freedom Party. This caused widespread outrage in Europe, and fourteen members of the European Union imposed informal diplomatic sanctions against Austria's federal administration. A few months later, these sanctions were dropped as a result of a fact-finding mission by three former European prime ministers, the so-called "three wise men". In November 2002, general elections resulted in a landslide victory (42.27% of the vote) for the People's Party under the leadership of Federal Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel. Haider's Freedom Party, which in 1999 was slightly stronger than Schüssel's party, was reduced to 10.16% of the vote. 2000 is a leap year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Jörg Haider in Carinthia (promotional photo) Jörg Haider (born January 26, 1950) is an Austrian politician. ... The Austrian Freedom Party (Freiheitliche Partei Österreichs, abbreviated to FPÖ) is an Austrian political party usually associated with the name of Jörg Haider. ... 2002 is a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The election for the National Council of 24 November 2002, saw the consevative Austrian Peoples Party win the government, taking seats from the nationalist Freedom of Austria Party whom it was in coalition with. ... The Federal Chancellor of Austria (Bundeskanzler) is the Austria. ... Wolfgang Schüssel Wolfgang Schüssel (born June 7, 1945) is a Christian Democratic Austrian politician. ...

External link

• Austrian People's Party (http://www.oevp.at/English/) (official site)
• Austrian People's Party (http://www.photoglobe.info/ebooks/austria/cstudies_austria_0138.html) Country Studies - Austria