Social Concertation in Times of Austerity Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Tables and Figures
- List of Abbreviations
- Acknowledgements
- 1 The Strange Survival of Social Concertation in Times of Austerity
- 2 Social Concertation as a Political Strategy
- 3 European Integration, Domestic Politics and Social Concertation
- 4 Methods and Cases
- 5 The Context of Social Concertation in Switzerland and Austria
- 6 Social Concertation and Cross-Border Labour Mobility
- 7 Social Concertation and Unemployment Policy Reforms
- 8 Synthesis and Comparative Outlook
- List of Interviews
- Notes
- References
- Index
- Changing Welfare States
5 - The Context of Social Concertation in Switzerland and Austria
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 January 2021
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Tables and Figures
- List of Abbreviations
- Acknowledgements
- 1 The Strange Survival of Social Concertation in Times of Austerity
- 2 Social Concertation as a Political Strategy
- 3 European Integration, Domestic Politics and Social Concertation
- 4 Methods and Cases
- 5 The Context of Social Concertation in Switzerland and Austria
- 6 Social Concertation and Cross-Border Labour Mobility
- 7 Social Concertation and Unemployment Policy Reforms
- 8 Synthesis and Comparative Outlook
- List of Interviews
- Notes
- References
- Index
- Changing Welfare States
Summary
Swiss and Austrian success can be measured in political as well as economic terms. Political leaders in both countries have fashioned policies that have left largely unquestioned the legitimacy of their political institutions and practices. In both societies symbols of widespread public disenchantment are rare. Political parties and, in the case of Switzerland, the institution of direct democracy continue as the unquestioned avenues for mass political participation. […] New social movements and novel forms of politics, which have grown in importance elsewhere, are insignifi cant in Switzerland and Austria. […] In short, Switzerland and Austria are remarkable stories of political success. (Katzenstein 1984: 20)
Grand Coalition governments have dominated politics in Austria […] ever since World War II, and for even longer in Switzerland. For decades, huge majorities of Austrian and Swiss voters endorsed this arrangement. […] Yet even a Grand Coalition is vulnerable to becoming a monopoly unresponsive to new issues. Sooner or later, some citizens will abandon established loyalties and vote for the rascal they do not know in preference to those that they know too well. (Rose 2000: 30)
Since World War II, Austria and Switzerland have commonly been described as ideal types of political stability, successful political integration and economic prosperity. Pope Paul VI for instance famously called Austria the “Island of the Blessed” in 1971 to emphasise the absence of visible conflicts in this country as compared to the social unrest that characterised other parts of Europe at the time. Similarly, Denis de Rougemont (1965) and Andre Siegfried (1948) titled their books on Switzerland respectively “The History of a Happy People” (La Suisse ou l’Histoire d’un Peuple Heureux) and “The Poster Child of Democracy” (La Suisse, Democratie-Temoin). In these books, they emphasised the absence of open conflicts observed elsewhere, and the peaceful cohabitation of different cultures and classes within a same polity. With a more critical tone, the historian Hans-Ulrich Jost once argued that the stability and consensus of Swiss politics were so deadening that they may be responsible for the high suicide rate in this country.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Social Concertation in Times of AusterityEuropean Integration and the Politics of Labour Market Reforms in Austria and Switzerland, pp. 91 - 110Publisher: Amsterdam University PressPrint publication year: 2013