ABSTRACT
This book contains much, and that justifiably so, about the change, indeed the “fragility,” 1 of the Austrian party system. The stability premise underlying many previous analyses comes up against the “decomposition” of the voter base of Austria’s two big parties, growing voter mobility and the chances of newer, more postmaterialist-oriented groups. The thesis of the “Party Society in Transition” (Kofler 1985), now well proven and often cited, will not and cannot be contradicted here in any way. Nevertheless, when starting an essay on regional aspects of the Austrian states, the viewer is struck first of all by extreme continuities and firmly entrenched factors. To ignore these in the face of the signs of change would constitute a careless disregard of important facts and would confer an inadmissible far-reaching dimension on the prognosis of change. With that in mind, this chapter will purposely examine that part of the Austrian stage that often appears very constant and on which these changes take place.
