1991/12/01 by Ewald Nowotny, Nowotny, Ewald · 10 citations
Social Sciences · #Public Administration and Political Analysis
paper · pdf · doi:10.57938/d4ade147-8136-45b1-b293-c4002f373b58
Austria is a democratic, "Western-style" federal republic. (1) What distinguishes Austria from other West-European political systems is the scope and influence of its specific form of "social partnership". (2)In contrast to other countries, social partnership in Austria is not just a system of labor management relations or of wage bargaining, but a system of institutionalized cooperation between labor, business and government that is involved in all important aspects of economic and social policy.The Austrian social partnership was formed on a voluntary and informal basis by the Austrian Trade Union Federation and the Chambers of Agriculture, of Commerce, and of Labor to control post-war inflation in the early 1950s.It developed later into a comprehensive system of influence in the fields of economic and social policy.The most important formal institution of social partnership is the "Parity Commission for Wages and Prices" as an instrument of macroeconomically-oriented incomes policy.The Parity Commission was founded in 1957.Its members are the Chambers of Commerce, Labor and Agriculture, together with the Austrian Trade Union Federation (GB) and the responsible ministers who serve on a voluntary basis.Although the Federal Chancellor acts as chairman, members of the government have no right to vote.All decisions have to be unanimous.The Parity Commission has no legal authority nor any means of applying direct sanctions.The threat to impose sanctions is left to the government, but it has rarely been exercised.