Geschichte vergleichender Parteien – Außenpolitik und Mitgliedschaft in der Europäischen Union: SPÖ und ÖVP in internationalen Organisationen und transnationalen Netzwerken 1945–2005

Abstract

After 1945 Austrian Christian Democrats tried to catch up the advance of international networking on the part of Austrian Socialists, who developed their contacts in the time of exile. ÖVP-politicians felt above all committed to NEI, EUCD, EDU und EVP, although these federations focused on their own interests. The ideological-political commitment of the socialists in the 1940s and 1950s was centred on the issues “Europe”, the development of “democratic socialism” and the still open question to the future structure of Germany. In the 1960s their activities were focused on the process of decolonisation and on the campaign against dictatorships. In connection with a rising awareness of the North-South divide the “jailbreak” out of the “ghetto Europe” and the turn to globalisation succeeded in the framework of SI. For Austrian Christian Democrats networking was primarily an instrument of policy, just a way out of the enforced abstemiousness in European integration. The council of Europe and the EC, which became more important, made a strengthened transnational networking necessary. More than questions about globalisation the Europeanisation forced to cooperation – in civil society in Central- and Eastern European countries or in party politics in Western European and transatlantic direction. Not until 1989/90 the dominance of EC-west-orientation was asserted, which cleared the way to EU-accession. Contacts within the EVP from this time were helpful in the crisis of Austrian isolation during the EU14 boycott of the ÖVP/FPÖ-government.