Publisher's Synopsis
This volume comprises the only up-to-date English-language work which seeks to assess the whole of the post-war Austrian experience in the light of the latest research, using a multi-disciplinary approach by historians, political scientists, international relations specialists and literary historians. It is addressed not only to specialists in Austrian and European affairs, but also to students and scholars concerned with the evolution of small democracies, their place in an integrated continent and the shape of post-Communist Central Europe. - - The formative first two decades of the Second Republic are reassessed in four contributions: analyses of the key actors and events involved in the genesis of post-war state; of the activities of Karl Renner?s first coalition government; of how tensions regarding Austrian identity were played out in wartime and post-war literature and of the competing domestic and superpower perceptions of Austria?s fledgling neutrality. - - The socio-political dimension is addressed in essays on the post-war development of a firm national identity and on the decline of the Second Republic?s deferential political culture. There is also an assessment of change in the structure and style of party competition, which documents Austria?s recent tendency to move from accommodative to more competitive politics. - - The first of four contributions on Austria?s external relations charts the development of foreign policy from the 1955 State Treaty to European Union membership in 1995 and a 'crisis of normalization'. The next two outline the development of Austria?s relations to her Eastern and Southern neighbours: Hungary and Slovenia respectively. The fourth points to how the end of the Cold War and European Union membership have brought about a qualitative transformation in Austria?s external relations, requiring the Second Republic to reassess its self-ascribed role as a bridge between East and West and to contemplate abandoning neutrality. The closing essay, argues that recent domestic changes can be regarded as indicating a significant shift (albeit belated and incomplete) from collectivism to liberalism.
