Austria — The Paradigm Case of Liberal Corporatism?

Abstract

Whereas outside observers and analysts unanimously consider Austria to be the prototype of the new corporatism (Lehmbruch, 1982; Schmitter, 1981a), Austrians themselves strongly resent it if their co-operative system of labour relations and interest intermediation is called ‘corporatist’. Why is this so and what does it mean? While resistance to ‘corporatist’ claims is rooted in recent Austrian history, political objections and semantic ambiguities surrounding the paradigm case draw our attention to typical normative problems which arise in connection with the idea of corporatism as a self-denying concept. Thus, being of general theoretical significance, labelling paradoxes cannot be ignored.