ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the fact that Austrias political parties and their interaction have been crucial in determining the Austrian political systems overall character is one reason why parties and the party system have figured so prominently in the literature on Austrian consociationalism. Equally significant is the central role which parties play in consociational theory in general. Consociational theory explains the existence of political stability in certain countries with deeply fragmented political cultures. It comprises a set of propositions concerning in the main two aspects of such political systems: their political sociology and the nature of their political elites behaviour. Consociational theory emphasises socio-political pillarisation, namely, the existence of vertically encapsulated and mutually hostile political subcultures, which in Austria have come to be referred to as Lager. Political parties play a crucial role both in the political sociology and the overarching elite behaviour of consociational political systems.
