ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines the consociational literatures basic concerns. It establishes that literature held to be the empirical features that qualified the Austrian political system of the 1950s and 1960s for inclusion in the category of consociational democracies. The chapter examines the structure the empirical examination, of the extent to which Austria still exhibits those features and thus still merits the designation of a consociational political system. It contends that in certain subculturally segmented societies in which one might expect to find political immobilism, or instability, these characteristics are avoided as a result of a certain type of political response. At its core lies the willingness and capacity of political elites to engage in overarching behaviour to stabilise the system. The chapter argues that accommodative elite behaviour is primarily a product of accommodative traditions ingrained in the role culture of the relevant countrys political and administrative elite.
