ABSTRACT
Austria is a conservative country, and paradoxically, the Social Democrats represent the conservative stance much better than the people’s party (OVP). The OVP may be oriented towards traditional values. Political scientists have announced that political camps are becoming "liquid," that voters are floating and party identification is declining. However, socialist voters seem to have stronger ties to their political "homeland" than adherents of other parties. The OVP does not come to terms with the problem that a conservative inventory cannot easily be reconciled with neo-liberal market ideas. The unconstrained market destroys what is dear for a conservative. The OVP counts on continuities and reliabilities which are nothing but obstacles for market euphoria's eagerness to customize everything, and it counts on virtues which appear quite dusty in a narcissistic society. Nevertheless, it is astonishing that the party has surrendered traditional fields like the universities and more generally the concept of Bildung which has constituted the high reputation of the German-speaking countries.
