ABSTRACT
Germany and Austria are interesting cases in that no pacts (in Austria) or few pacts (in Germany) have surfaced. They share further similarities con cerning their political-economic institutions and party systems: both are generally considered Coordinated Market Economies with fairly stable economies; they rank relatively high on the corporatism index with Germany positioned somewhat lower than its southern neighbor (Siaroff 1999 ); they have a conservative welfare state (Tálos 2004 ; Esping-Andersen 1990 ); and their party systems and governments have been dominated by two major parties, a Christian Democratic and a social democratic party. Moreover, in both countries, at least one of the two big parties was in office during the 1980-2006 period, though always in coalition (with the exception of 1980-83 in Austria). In addition, for both major parties in Germany and Austria “the building of a comprehensive welfare state was one of the most important policy goals” since the end of World War II (Busemeyer 2005 : 571), and social spending was a major budget item in both countries – 26 percent of GDP in Austria in 2001 and 27.4 percent in Germany (Busemeyer 2005 : 572).
