ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of trends and patterns in Austrian voting behavior based on data gathered from representative post elections polls and/or exit polls covering the period from 1970 to 2006. The emergence of differentiated voting behavior by the younger generation of female voters is described as "gender realignment" in international electoral studies, thus focusing on the reorientation of younger women's voting behavior. Traditional explanations of electoral behavior, either in terms of ideological orientations or deeply rooted social cleavages, are only relevant for an ever diminishing minority and are, therefore, unlikely to capture the moods or reasons of voters. Party competition and electoral behavior in Austria thus underwent unprecedented changes. Since the early 1970s, new issues and conflicts as well as changed attitudes towards values and expectations of postmodern, cognitively mobilized groups of voters have reinforced the competitive pressure on parties.
