Austrian Exceptionalism

Abstract

This paper focuses on the developments pertaining to the controversy surrounding the coming to power of a “black/blue” coalition government in Austria during the early part of 2000. It analyzes the antecedents to this event and places it in the context of Austria’s postwar political arrangements. While the paper does not deal with the situation of Austrian Jews in particular and also does not feature an analysis of Austrian anti-Semitism, it presumes the latter ill to be a featured constant in the societal framework and cultural arrangement that permitted the rise of Joerg Haider and Haiderism to the pinnacle of the European Right at the beginning of the twenty-first century.