Workers and Politics in Occupied Austria, 1945-55

About this book

"Between 1945 and 1955, Austria and its capital were occupied by the four (increasingly mutually antagonistic) Allied Powers. During this decade of confusion, insecurity, suspicion and fear, and confronted by poverty and the threat of famine, Austria's political and economic elites joined forces to promote a culture of political unity and harmony from which eventually emerged the Austrian model of corporatism, commonly referred to as Social Partnership. This study shows that conservatives, Socialists and Communists initially co-operated in coalition government, industrialists embraced nationalisation, and union leaders abandoned class conflict, accepting wage controls in return for a role in national policy formation. This book sets the social and economic difficulties which Austria encountered in this decade in their international context and examines how they were contained."--Jacket.