ABSTRACT
The Austrian model of cooperative and concerted interest politics basically reached its present form by the end of the 1950s and in the early 1960s. The interest associations that are involved in Austrian corporatism are a part of the political decision-making structure. Structurally, Austrian corporatism is made up of a complex network of formal and informal interactions among the large interest associations and between these and the government/state bureaucracy. The Austrian version of corporatism is most effective on the macro level of interest politics. The change in the party system was accompanied by a change in the attitudes of the Austrians towards social partnership and the special nature of its institutions. Despite the changes within social partnership and in the conditions surrounding it, this mainstay of the Austrian political system is in no danger of collapsing, nor does it lack continuity.
