“There is life in the old dog yet” – The stability and continuity of the Austrian socialpartnership.

Abstract

At the beginning of the millennium, scientists predicted a decline of the Austrian social partnership’s political importance. However, during the time of repression the social partnership rediscovered its ability to affect recovery and regained political influence. Currently, the social partnership has demonstrated itself again to be wellgrounded in the labor law legislative process. Therefore this article approaches following question: How can the stability and continuity of the social partnership during the phase of repression (between the years 2000 and 2006) be explained? To answer this question two law-making processes during this period will be analyzed: it will be shown that institutional and actor-centered explanations as well as social partnership specific identities are the key explanations for the current continuity and stability of the Austro-Corporatism.