Book contents
- Riding the Populist Wave
- Riding the Populist Wave
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Figures and Tables
- Preface
- 1 The Mainstream Right in Western Europe: Caught between the Silent Revolution and Silent Counter-Revolution
- 2 The Demand Side: Profiling the Electorate of the Mainstream Right in Western Europe since the 2000s
- 3 The Supply Side: Mainstream Right Party Policy Positions in a Changing Political Space in Western Europe
- 4 Austria: Tracing the Christian Democrats’ Adaptation to the Silent Counter-Revolution
- 5 France: Party System Change and the Demise of the Post-Gaullist Right
- 6 Germany: How the Christian Democrats Manage to Adapt to the Silent Counter-Revolution
- 7 Italy: The Mainstream Right and its Allies, 1994–2018
- 8 The Netherlands: How the Mainstream Right Normalized the Silent Counter-Revolution
- 9 Spain: The Development and Decline of the Popular Party
- 10 Sweden: The Difficult Adaptation of the Moderates to the Silent Counter-Revolution
- 11 The United Kingdom: The Conservatives and their Competitors in the post-Thatcher Era
- 12 The Mainstream Right in Western Europe in the Twenty-First Century
- References
- Index
4 - Austria: Tracing the Christian Democrats’ Adaptation to the Silent Counter-Revolution
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 August 2021
- Riding the Populist Wave
- Riding the Populist Wave
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Figures and Tables
- Preface
- 1 The Mainstream Right in Western Europe: Caught between the Silent Revolution and Silent Counter-Revolution
- 2 The Demand Side: Profiling the Electorate of the Mainstream Right in Western Europe since the 2000s
- 3 The Supply Side: Mainstream Right Party Policy Positions in a Changing Political Space in Western Europe
- 4 Austria: Tracing the Christian Democrats’ Adaptation to the Silent Counter-Revolution
- 5 France: Party System Change and the Demise of the Post-Gaullist Right
- 6 Germany: How the Christian Democrats Manage to Adapt to the Silent Counter-Revolution
- 7 Italy: The Mainstream Right and its Allies, 1994–2018
- 8 The Netherlands: How the Mainstream Right Normalized the Silent Counter-Revolution
- 9 Spain: The Development and Decline of the Popular Party
- 10 Sweden: The Difficult Adaptation of the Moderates to the Silent Counter-Revolution
- 11 The United Kingdom: The Conservatives and their Competitors in the post-Thatcher Era
- 12 The Mainstream Right in Western Europe in the Twenty-First Century
- References
- Index
Summary
The chapter explains how the centrist Christian Democratic Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP) has responded to the challenges of the silent revolution and counter-revolution by demonstrating a selective willingness to cooperate with the populist radical right Freedom Party (FPÖ). Sufficient electoral distress led to the installation of new leaders who were able to change the strategic status quo. In the first instance, in 1995 Wolfgang Schüssel emphasized policy-seeking and in the second case Sebastian Kurz pursed vote-seeking. Both strategies resulted in a positional alignment and eventually a coalition with the FPÖ, which at the time was pursuing office. Changes in the ÖVP depended on shifts in the balance of power among important intra-party groups, specifically, hardline Conservatives and market Liberals viewing cooperation with the FPÖ as advantageous for their respective interests. Overall, the chapter concludes that while the ÖVP has been affected by massive voter de-alignment since the 1980s, it responded to the counter-revolution and the resulting surge of nativist populism mainly by means of emulation and cooperation.
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- Riding the Populist WaveEurope's Mainstream Right in Crisis, pp. 91 - 112Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2021
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