Austrian People's Party

The Austrian People's Party or Österreichische Volkspartei is an Austrian political party. It is roughly comparable to the German Christian Democratic Union in terms of both platform and voter demographics. The People's Party has been founded immediately following the reestablishment of the Federal Republic of Austria in 1945 and has been a major player in Austrian politics ever since.

Platform

With regard to social policy, the Austrian People's Party is a classical conservative movement, running on a platform of respect for tradition and stability of social order. In particular, it is expressly not interested in strengthening Austria's incomplete separation of church and state and appears to be somewhat skeptical of affirmative action, gay rights, and other forms of real or perceived Social engineering. For most of its existence, the People's Party has explicitly defined itself as Catholic and anti-socialist; the ideal of subsidiarity as defined by the encyclical Quadragesimo Anno is generally considered one of the historical cornerstones of its agenda.

Related Topics:
Conservative - Separation of church and state - Affirmative action - Gay rights - Social engineering - Catholic - Socialist - Subsidiarity - Encyclical - Quadragesimo Anno

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With regard to economic policy, the People's Party advocates what is probably best described as new liberalism, endorsing the reduction of Austria's relatively large public sector, welfare reform, and general deregulation. With regard to foreign affairs, it strongly supports European integration. Over the last two decades, the People's party has also adopted a more pronouncedly environmentalist stance than is typical for conservative movements.

Related Topics:
New liberalism - Public sector - Welfare reform - Deregulation - European integration - Environmentalist

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The People's Party's position within the traditional political spectrum is hard to mark down. On the one hand, its views on economic policy are slightly right-of-center if seen in the context of Europe's political landscape, and its views on social policy are right-of-center in the context of the political landscape of almost any Western democracy. On the other hand, its views on economic policy are still arguably closer to those of classical social democracy than to those of classical laissez-faire capitalism, and it advocates decidedly more economic interventionism than most ostensibly left-wing parties in Europe. Party leaders and intellectuals have been known to approvingly comment on select aspects of economic philosophies like those of Margaret Thatcher or Friedrich Hayek, but the party's rank and file mostly do not follow suit. While the party is seen as more or less rightist by many Austrians and other Europeans, it would appear centrist or possibly even leftist to most American observers.

Related Topics:
Political spectrum - Europe - Social democracy - Laissez-faire - Economic interventionism - Margaret Thatcher - Friedrich Hayek - Rightist - Centrist - Leftist

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